Elon Musk has an offer for journalists who want to 'earn more' on X
X (formerly known as Twitter) boss Elon Musk has made a passionate appeal to journalists on the platform. In a message posted on Monday (August 21), Musk urged the journalists to post their content on the platform, promising higher income and more freedom to write.
"If you're a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform," Musk posted on X.
Notably, Musk had previously said that X users may have to shell out extra money to read news articles on the platform. In April, earlier this year, Musk said his platform will allow media publishers to charge users to read their articles.
"Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with one click," posted Musk.
"This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article. Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public," he added.
However, since the announcement, not much has happened on the front as Musk and X focus on issuing payouts to creators for showing ads in their posts.
While Musk makes the appeal, there have been reports coming out, suggesting that X is planning a major change in how news articles pop up on the platform.
According to a Forbes report, after the update is rolled out, the headlines and the accompanying text of the articles will be removed and posts with the article link will only display the lead image. Meaning, individual users as well as publishers will have to manually add their own text alongside the links or otherwise, the post (tweet) will display only an image without any context.
The change could have major implications as a majority of the publishers rely heavily on the platform to drive traffic to their sites. Notably, the change is being directly pushed by Musk, sources close to the publication stated.
While Musk claims to be an upholder of free speech, media reports last week claimed that X deliberately delayed accessing the links to other social media competing platforms and news websites like Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and the New York Times.
