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Twitter launches a new subscription service for U.S. and New Zealand users. The service gives some extra perks, including some articles from many news sites.
In June, the company rolled out the service for users in Australia and Canada to test out the product. It gives access to special features like undoing a tweet, personalizing the Twitter app icon, and organizing bookmarks. Another feature is uploading 10-minute videos instead of being limited to under three minutes. Users can also pin important conversations in their D.M.s. Subscribers could also try new features earlier than others, testing them out and giving feedback.
The U.S. launch includes access to ad-free articles on the Twitter app. These articles come from over 300 news sites, including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and Insider. A company spokesperson confirmed that paywalled articles from these sites were not included.
Company Ambitions
Twitter has been trying to come up with new ways to make money. Advertising, alone, brings in 89% of its revenue, according to CNBC. Twitter acquired Revue back in January and Scroll back in May, hoping to build up a vital news component.
People can use Revue to create newsletters, and publishers use Scroll to develop ad-free reading services. Another feature could notify users of articles being shared by people they follow on the app. This feature initially was offered by Nuzzel, a Scroll service, and bringing it back would delight many former users.
Project managers explained that the company wants to better serve publishers by giving them a portion of the fees from the new service. They say the goal is to “help each publishing partner make 50 percent more per person than they would have made from serving ads to that person.” The price tag is $2.99 a month and is available to Twitter iOS, Android, and web customers.
Written by Chiagozie Onyewuchi
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
CNBC: Twitter launches Blue subscription service in U.S., offers ad-free access to 300 news sites; by Salvador Rodriguez
The New York Times: Twitter expands its subscription service to news articles. By Kate Conger
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of magicatwork’ss Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of DaveShea’ss Flickr Page – Creative Commons License