Elon Musk announced Saturday that Twitter will allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis in the near future. The new feature will let media publishers allow users to acquire access to articles for a one-time fee, as opposed to purchasing a full subscription.
“Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click,” Musk tweeted. “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.”
Musk anticipates that the new Twitter feature will be a “win-win” for readers and media publishers.
Other details about the upcoming feature remain unclear, such as the percentage of each transaction that Twitter will take as commission. There is also no official launch date revealed or clarification about which accounts and media outlets will be able to qualify for the feature.
In the past, Musk has stated he’s felt “under constant attack” from the public since he purchased Twitter last year for $44 billion. The tech billionaire has received criticism for restoring Donald Trump’s account, which was previously banned, and eliminating Twitter’s legacy verification program, amongst other issues.
On Friday, Musk sat down with Bill Maher on “Real Time With Bill Maher” to talk about his controversial acquisition of the social media platform.
“I think we need to be very cautious about anything that is anti-meritocratic and anything that results in the suppression of free speech,” Musk said to Maher. “So those are two of the aspects of the ‘woke mind virus’ that I think are very dangerous…. You can’t question things, even the questioning is bad. Almost synonymous would be cancel culture.”
“My concern with Twitter was that it is somewhat of the digital town square and it’s important that there be both the reality and perception of trust for a wide range of viewpoints,” he said.
While Musk did not directly address the controversy around his Twitter Blue program, which offers verification checkmarks to users who pay a monthly fee, he did argue that in order for the platform to avoid bankruptcy, he had to “take drastic action.”
“I think things are reasonably stabilized right now. It was on the fast-track to bankruptcy after acquisition so I had to take drastic action. There was no choice,” Musk said.