Few people divide opinion like Elon Musk, but he is gaining traction with his decision to enable media publishers on Twitter to charge users on a ‘per article’ basis with one click, eschewing the conventional business models based on either a regular subscription to access all content or financing free-to-view content with advertising revenue. Well, we all know the latter is never really free – you hand over something much more valuable than cash every time you access ‘free’ content: your data.
Cosmin Ene, founder of Supertab, advocates the pay-per-article model in ‘What’s New In Publishing’ (https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/pay-per-read-did-elon-musk-just-save-the-media-industry/); however, I don’t entirely agree that it is the single best model for all publishers and publications. After all, many publications have been combining all three models for years: offer some ‘free’ content as a hoiker-in; offer further content at a modest charge per article; and once they’re hooked suggest a full subscription …