Elon Musk claims that Twitter plans to let media publishers charge users on a per-article basis, with one click, starting in May 2023

Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click. This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.... https://twitter.com/...

@elonmusk 2023-04-30 Elon Musk

Context & Ripple Effects

Twitter had been moving away from bundled publisher benefits: it reportedly planned to end ad-free publisher articles for Blue subscribers in a retreat from bundled publisher access. This proposal instead makes individual articles a transaction layer on the platform.

The plan also fits Musk’s broader effort to diversify Twitter’s revenue model, including earlier ideas to charge around tweet distribution and reuse and to differentiate paid tiers through advertising exposure.

First-order effects

Publishers that participate could offer one-click purchases to Twitter users who will not commit to a recurring subscription, while setting a higher occasional-reader price.
Twitter would add a publisher-payment use case alongside its own subscriptions and advertising-based tiers; the report is a stated plan, not evidence of a completed rollout.

Second-order effects

Publishers would need to weigh incremental reach and conversion against the economics and customer relationship of selling through Twitter rather than directing readers to their own paywalls.
The move could push other social and content platforms to make outbound news consumption more transactional, particularly where subscription conversion from referred readers is weak.

Third-order effects

If platforms can reliably convert article-level demand, publisher monetization may shift toward a mixed model of subscriptions for frequent readers and high-margin access for occasional ones.
That would deepen platforms’ role as payment intermediaries for news, potentially increasing publishers’ dependence on platform rules, discovery algorithms, and revenue-sharing terms.

The trend: This is one data point in the shift from all-or-nothing digital subscriptions toward workflow-native, usage-based payments for individual pieces of content.

Discussion

@wholemarsblog @wholemarsblog on x
The pace of feature rollouts at Twitter 2.0 is wild https://twitter.com/...
@sullycnbc Brian Sullivan on x
This is fantastic. Media needs easy-to-pay revenue streams that don't involve pricey or long-term subscriptions which can scare people off. Kudos. https://twitter.com/...
@maggielmcg @maggielmcg on x
First how about just fix basic functionality of Twitter first, hoss? (Still getting Twitter Blue fx for free 3 months after canceling tho 🙌) https://twitter.com/...
@royprice Roy Price on x
I don't think individual transactions — sub to tweeters, pay for articles — is the endgame. Better: one big subscription w access to all articles and tweets. And video? Cf. at AMZN customers didn't love movie rentals, they loved subscription video. https://twitter.com/...
@nikkimcr @nikkimcr on x
Ah yes a win for the public, more paywalls. https://twitter.com/...
@bmeiselas Brett Meiselas on x
There's always a tweet. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@stevanzetti Steven Monacelli on x
The short term thinking inherent to the “micro-payment” model effectively guarantees it will not be a sustainable way to fund journalism. Good investigative reporting requires time and planning. https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
@bigblackjacobin this really is weird. they're thinking like a certain class of end-users and must have no one at all in the room who works in bizdev or understands publisher relationships so in essence he's pitching them a technical integration that could lead to losing subscrib…
@t0nyyates Tony Yates on x
This seems like a good feature to me. Mainstream newspapers or similar may not want to do payment per article but a bit of encouragement/coercion from Musk is ok. Presumably they take a cut. idk sole bloggers qualify as a ‘media org’. https://twitter.com/...
@martinsfp @martinsfp on x
Ah, ‘publishers should charge spot payments for articles’ comes around earlier every year. https://twitter.com/...
@seyitaylor @seyitaylor on x
I love micropayments. https://twitter.com/...
@arrington @arrington on x
This is fantastic. https://twitter.com/...
@ericbahn Eric Bahn on x
I think this is actually a legit carrot that Twitter is offering publishers. Paying a small fee per article is long overdue. https://twitter.com/...
@realtombohn Tom Bohn on x
Very good moove. This has been missing for a long time. 🙏 https://twitter.com/...
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
Here's why media organisations don't use this model. (From 2020): https://www.cjr.org/... Spoiler: it's a *huge* loss of revenue for them. It's one of those things that's obvious to anyone not on the commercial side of the industry, and a terrible idea to those on it. https://twi…
@juddlegum Judd Legum on x
Everyone who has never tried to make a living as a writer thinks micropayments are a good idea. https://twitter.com/...
@ezralevant Ezra Levant on x
This one small move by Twitter does more good for Canadian content creators than the bureaucratic mess called C-11, or the entire CRTC, come to think of it. But C-11 gives censorship power to Trudeau, and this doesn't. https://twitter.com/...
@boltyboy Matthew Holt on x
This is an idea I have been asking for forever. Hopefully it'll work & spread beyond Twitter https://twitter.com/...
@mcwm Mike Murphy on x
it's so funny to see him try everything the industry has already tried over the last decade again https://twitter.com/...
@mahirzeynalov Mahir Zeynalov on x
Media long asked social media companies share profits they make through news media journalism. Elon “solves” this but through readers' money. It is a joke. https://twitter.com/...
@paultassi Paul Tassi on x
You all will pay $500 per Destiny article right https://twitter.com/...
@davidclinchnews David Clinch on x
#MediaRevenue The fine print will be key. Who owns the user data and can publishers be certain they are not cannibalising their own subscription funnels. Done well, this could be huge for casual news consumers, but it is very complicated. https://twitter.com/...
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
Babe wake up we're doing micropayments in media for the 87th time https://twitter.com/...
@philduan Phil Duan on x
This is the way to do pay wall correctly. It will also hopefully incentivize publishers to create more high quality content: consistently satisfactory pay-per-view will naturally converts to subscription. https://twitter.com/...
@truedevonthomps Devon A Thompson on x
This is a smart move. Could allow him to go around coming Canadian legislation. https://twitter.com/...
@brianmbunde Brian Mbunde on x
Reminds me of Nation pulling this off then later on guys stopped purchasing and used to ask one person to buy and share with everyone😂😂😂. https://twitter.com/...
@wwwojtekk Wojtek Kopczuk on x
The devil is always in the details but I'm very much the target demographic for it https://twitter.com/...
@bmeiselas Brett Meiselas on x
The problem Elon has backed himself into is that he is so toxic and reviled now, he could have the best idea in the world and it won't be adopted by the masses. He has proven himself to be untrustworthy. He attacked those who'd use it: potential writers, readers and publications.…
@electionlegal Pericles ‘Perry’ Abbasi on x
The push for twitter blue isn't just about the $8 a month. It's also about getting people to have their credit card linked to their twitter account so they can do more one click microtransactions https://twitter.com/...
@prestonjbyrne Preston Byrne on x
*many* journalism entrepreneurs have been trying to roll out the pay per click model for years but nobody could figure out how to get everyone onboarded onto a single platform. Musk just did it. https://twitter.com/...
@kattenbarge Kat Tenbarge on x
Lol this isn't going to work https://twitter.com/...
@choisungho Sung Ho Choi on x
One of those things that sound good in theory, but never works well in practice. We'll see if Twitter can ever make micropayments work. https://twitter.com/...
@mysk_co @mysk_co on x
And a major win-win for both Apple & Google #AppStoreTax https://twitter.com/...
@chaddepue Chad DePue on x
@DanielleFong I've always felt like Twitter was the only platform that could really pull off micropayments at scale. First idea that seems genuinely interesting...
@mattnavarra Matt Navarra on x
This won't work. Publishers won't buy into this https://twitter.com/...
@iamasarch Steven Asarch on x
Imo this fundamentally misunderstands journalism on Twitter. The click-through rate on articles is already abysmally low because people hate it when you put barriers in front of content (just put the info straight to their eyes). Some people might pay, but most won't. https://twi…
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
1: does Twitter drive enough traffic to care? 2: would you build on something that might be cancelled on a whim tomorrow? 3: Twitter doesn't have any payment cards on file to process payments. https://twitter.com/...
@nipseyhoussle @nipseyhoussle on x
Kind of cool actually. Have zero interest in subscribing to most publications but would pay $1 every now and then for a specific article I want to read (especially if one click and I get access) https://twitter.com/...

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