Pay-per-article service coming to Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO (WIVB) – Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been controversial, dividing users over topics of subscription, verification and content.

But the business magnate, whose leadership extends to Tesla and SpaceX as well, believes an upcoming change “should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public.”

On Saturday, Musk announced that sometime this month, Twitter will let media publishers with subscription services start charging people per article read if they choose not to subscribe to that particular publisher.

“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 wrote.

It’s not clear when exactly this month the change will take effect.

Response to Musk’s statement has been mixed, with some Twitter users suggesting alternative payment methods, such as cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin or Bitcoin Lightning, while others simply criticize the change.

“Can we have a preloaded amount added to our twitter so I don’t have 100 charges for $1 through my bank?” Twitter user @Travis_in_Flint suggested.

“Boooo pay walls!” another Twitter user, @scarynorm, wrote.

It’s not clear if outlets covering local content, such as The Buffalo News and The Athletic, will implement the change. WIVB has reached out to those organizations for statements.

In addition to this change, Twitter enabled a monetization feature this past Friday.

“Content creators can now enable subscriptions to their text, pics & video worldwide on this platform!” Musk wrote.