According to the head of the online service, Elon Musk, users of Twitter should in future be able to buy and read individual journalistic articles with one click. “Starting next month, the platform will enable media publishers to have users pay for individual articles (…),” the busy technology billionaire described his new project yesterday in the short message service. This is a “win-win situation for readers and media”.
According to Musk, users who do not want to pay for a monthly subscription to a newspaper can read individual articles “at a higher price” if they are interested. How much the items cost and how the purchase should work is still unclear.
Not enforced so far
The idea of a platform offering individual items from different media for sale is not new, but it has not yet established itself as an economically successful model. A prerequisite for Musk’s plan is also the involvement of newspaper publishers, who would have to offer their content on Twitter. In view of the tense relations between the pugnacious businessman and the media, this is by no means a matter of course.
Musk acquired Twitter last October for $44 billion (currently €40.07 billion). In the course of a chaotic restructuring of the platform, the entrepreneur fired top Twitter management and more than two-thirds of the 7,500 employees. He also had the blue verification tick removed from the accounts of numerous users who do not have a paid subscription.
