Twitter has terminated the ad-free article benefits provided to users of its paid subscription service Twitter Blue.
The feature reportedly allows users of the Twitter subscription service to read ad-free articles from participating publishers.
More was announced in the report at the same time, with the removal of ad-free articles effective from October 31, and the following paragraph included, which seems to indicate why Twitter is making this decision. “This difficult decision will allow us to pool our resources to add even more value to our members”
However, aside from an email to publishers, Twitter doesn’t appear to have any other announcements regarding its decision to end its paid subscription plans for ad-free articles. Meanwhile, Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, tweeted about different price points for the Twitter subscription service, which will be $8 per month.
Elon Musk also posted a subsequent tweet outlining additional features that will be included in the $8 per month Twitter Blue package, including “the ability to post long-form video and audio” and “half of the ads.
The last perk Elon Musk mentioned, “bypassing the paywall for publishers willing to work with us,” is particularly interesting in light of the recent removal of “ad-free articles” and sounds like it could be its replacement.
As of now, Elon Musk’s tweet doesn’t appear to offer any more details about this particular benefit, but the “bypass paywall” tweet seems to suggest that Blue subscribers could one-day bypass participating publishers’ paywalls as part of their Blue subscription. If this turns out to be true, this benefit could be even better than the ad-free reading experience.
