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News publishers to scrutinize Twitter’s pay-per-article feature
Indonesian publishers are prepping for Twitter’s new feature that would allow users to access premium news publication on pay per article basis with scrutiny.
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FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk Twitter account verification badge is seen in this illustration taken November 4, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters/DADO RUVIC)
M
edia publishers are preparing for Twitter’s new plan that will allow news outlets to charge users on a per-article basis with one click, but responses are largely clouded by scrutiny of the upcoming feature.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced the plan in late April through his Twitter account, the new feature will be launched in May and will enable users not signing up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per-article price.
“Should be a major win-win for both media orgs and the public,” wrote Musk in his account with @elonmusk handle.
Indonesian Cyber Media Association (AMSI) chairman Wenseslaus “Wens” Manggut told The Jakarta Post that Twitter’s new feature might bring about an extra source of revenue, but at the same time, it might affect other income streams.
The new feature is expected to function in Twitter as a platform to read the news instead of redirecting users to each media’s website. This might result in less traffic for the website, which many news outlets still rely on for advertisement revenue and which is determined by traffic.
Nevertheless, the Indonesian news industry still looks at the new feature as an opportunity rather than a barrier. “We welcome this plan because it may improve journalism,” Wens said on Thursday.
The reasoning behind that, explained Wens, was that users would pay for articles that they actually regarded as required reading and publishers would therefore strive to produce pieces needed by their audiences.
