Post.News, the news-focused social platform launched in 2022 that offered micropayments to publishers, is shutting down after failing to grow “fast enough”
https://www.theverge.com/... Josh Simmons / @josh@josh.tel : Bet on open source, open standards, and interoperability. — “But several Twitter alternatives are still standing — and all of them are part of the fediverse, which means they're open to sharing their content with other social platforms. … Marco Rogers / @polotek@social.polotek.net : The CEO of Post News DMed me on twitter a while back. My impression is that part of his job was trying to convince prolific posters to come over and hopefully bring some part of their audience with them. — I politely declined. I noped out of Post News once I understood that Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway were involved. … Jasmine Mangalaseril / @cardamomaddict@mstdn.ca : Given its backer and its biases, I'm not surprised it's shutting down, nor at how it's being spun. — “Toxicity free” is an interesting phrase to use. — https://www.theverge.com/... Steve Herman / @w7voa@journa.host : Post News, which sought to be a Twitter alternative, is shutting down. I have 5.8k followers there but rarely use it. I decided I've bandwidth for only two platforms after putting my Twitter accounts in suspended animation — Threads is one of them and Mastodon is the other. https://www.theverge.com/... @jdrch@mastodon.social : @Techmeme Saw this coming from 10 klicks out. I was wondering how they were still in business the other day after Artifact folded NevadaWolf / @NevadaWolf@birds.town : Another one bites the dust. Pebble gets a mention. — Twitter alternative Post News is shutting down — https://www.theverge.com/... Bluesky: Andrew Jennings / @andrewkjennings.com : I still do feel like micropayments could/should work for funding journalism, even though all attempts at it have failed. [embedded post] X: @lessin : Just shocking... the core idea was just so sound - must have been an execution problem. [image] @bluesky : Journalists have always been one of the backbones of social media, and we're hopeful that @bluesky can be a space for healthy real-time commentary and analysis. We're sorry to see a challenger to the social media incumbents shut down, but we're excited to see what the folks at... Kerry Flynn / @kerrymflynn : Another Twitter alternative is over @noam announced that https://post.news/ will shut down in the coming weeks Christopher Bouzy / @cbouzy : @BlackKnight10k @skitzymedeani They were seeking a $250 million valuation. https://www.axios.com/... Alex Heath / @alexeheath : another Twitter/X rival bites the dust https://post.news/... Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu : Post News, a start up that tried to take the place of Twitter but with a far friendlier environment for news and journalism — including an attempt to make micropayments work — announced that it will be shutting down soon. [image] Christopher Bouzy / @cbouzy : Post News is trending on Spoutible because it is closing in a month, and its users have started joining Spoutible. If you are a former Post News users, and searching for a safe and welcoming environment, then try Spoutible. https://spoutible.com/ [image] Christopher Bouzy / @cbouzy : I am sorry to hear Post News is shutting down. If you are currently a user of Post News and want a similar experience, please consider Spoutible. We are adequately funded, and we are not going anywhere. https://spoutible.com/... Forums: Hacker News : We will be shutting down Post News within the next few weeks r/technology : Twitter alternative Post News is shutting down See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Post.News entered public beta as a Twitter alternative built around publisher micropayments, with the company saying outlets averaged $25 CPM for paywalled articles. Its closure shows that a distinct revenue proposition for publishers did not, by itself, establish enough user growth.
The shutdown lands amid a broader reordering of social distribution: Twitter/X had tightened platform access, while Meta had already ended payments to U.S. news partners for Facebook’s News tab. That left news publishers testing alternatives even as the major platforms reduced direct support for news.
First-order effects
- Post.News users and participating publishers lose a news-sharing venue and its micropayment channel as the service winds down.
- The company’s attempt to pair a friendlier news environment with publisher payments ends without reaching the growth threshold it sought.
Second-order effects
- Other Twitter/X alternatives must compete harder for the users and publishers displaced by Post.News, while demonstrating that they can retain active contributors rather than merely attract sign-ups.
- Publishers seeking social referral and payment options have one fewer specialized outlet, increasing reliance on platforms whose news priorities and commercial terms they do not control.
Third-order effects
- The result reinforces how difficult it is to bootstrap a news-centric social network: publisher monetization and a differentiated product do not necessarily solve the audience-and-creator network effects required for scale.
- If major platforms continue to pull back from direct news funding, distribution for journalism is likely to fragment across services with divergent incentives, rather than consolidate around a dedicated paid-news social model.
The trend: News distribution is shifting away from platform-funded partnerships toward a fragmented set of social and direct channels, with specialized challengers struggling to overcome network effects.