Founder of Tesla Elon Musk says Twitter will allow publishers to sell articles on a per-article basis

Elon Musk announced that Twitter will allow publishers to charge users per article with just one click beginning in May. Media organizations and the public both won from it, according to Musk.

Musk tweeted that the feature will allow users who do not wish to subscribe to pay a higher per-article price when they only want to read occasional articles. The move is seen as Twitter's attempt to find a sustainable business model in light of fluctuating advertising revenue.

According to Musk, Twitter will take a 10% cut on content subscriptions after the first year. The company will not take a cut during the first year. Subscriptions include long-form text and hours-long videos.

A number of product and organizational changes have been made by Musk since taking over the social media firm in October 2022. It rolled out Twitter-verified blue ticks as a paid service and reduced its employee base by about 80 percent. The changes were aimed at boosting Twitter's revenue after the social media platform saw advertising income decline last year while Musk's acquisition of the company was on-and-off.

Due to the unpredictability of advertising revenue, the per-article payment feature may benefit media organizations struggling to make ends meet. While some have praised Musk's announcement as a positive step for publishers, others have criticized it as a way for Twitter to profit from users' reading habits.

As Twitter's CEO, Musk hasn't been shy about shaking things up and claims he is committed to making the platform more profitable.