Would you pay for a Twitter subscription?

'Cuz it sure seems like that's where we're headed.

Jul 10, 2020

Greetings from the Great Lakes, where the architecture is pretty damned good.

So when I worked as a journalist over at Fast Company, I had one big story-gathering rule: The best scoops were always, always in the job listings.

You see, if a tech company is planning to release a new product or service, the first public mention of it is almost never in a quarterly shareholder meeting or in a patent filing. Instead, it’s buried deep in a job vacancy post on Taleo/Greenhouse/etc.

While tech corporate communications and PR folks will work tooth and nail to keep journalists from talking about something new if it’s inconvenient for their employer… you can rest assured a middle-level manager will accidentally leave the crucial breadcrumbs in a job posting. It’s simply the way things work.

That’s why I was so fascinated when Tom Warren at The Verge’s eagle eyes found a Twitter help wanted ad that heavily implies Twitter is working on some kind of subscription product:

Twitter has a new internal team, codenamed “Gryphon,” that is “building a subscription platform.” Twitter is currently recruiting engineers to join this subscription team, with employees collaborating closely with the company’s payments team.
The job posting notes potential Twitter subscriptions would be “a first” for the company, but it’s not clear exactly how Twitter plans to implement a subscription service. Twitter generates the vast majority of its revenue through ad sales and data licensing currently, and a subscription service could potentially provide exclusive content in return for a monthly fee.

Interesting! The job listing can be found here.

So I want to focus on the last thing Warren mentioned: We don’t really know why Twitter is developing a subscription platform. The most likely suspects:

Twitter charging for Tweetdeck or another enterprise product for business users.
A Patreon- or Substack-like model for public personalities on Twitter.
A Twitch-like model for content creators on Twitter.
Twitter offering an enhanced service (Twitter Prime?) for subscribers.

(Via GIPHY)

Any of these models are possible. Twitter, the company, has a quandary they need to resolve:

Twitter-as-a-service has lots of frequent users around the world. Twitter-as-a-service’s user metrics, however, don’t necessarily translate into revenue for Twitter-the-company.

Twitter’s ad product, from an advertiser perspective, lags considerably behind Facebook and Google’s similar offerings. The targeting isn’t as precise. The ad formats aren’t as flexible. There’s a remarkably good chance your ad will show up close to offensive content. Fixing these problems (which I genuinely believe Twitter is doing) requires a long period of R&D and implementation. In the meantime, there’s always developing a subscription product that can outflank Facebook and provide potential new future pathways.

Details, as always, to come.

Anyway, there’s a lot to write about in this newsletter. Donate money to Al Otro Lado this time around.

The Big Picture

Let’s talk COVID-19. Here’s why bars and restaurants are hotspots for catching the ‘Rona, Dr. Fauci is worried about fully-booked aircraft as a health risk, and an (radically oversimplified but with interesting data points!) argument that Brooklyn’s Hasidic Jews are achieving herd immunity to COVID.
David French argues that America is in the grips of a non-religious fundamentalist revival on both the left (performative anti-racism) and the right (QAnon/Trumpism). Money quote: “Opinions held one year ago can be an anathema today. New leaders can rise and make new spiritual demands. Indeed, fundamentalism can be just as much about whom to follow as what to believe.”
Speaking of fundamentalisms, this article from India about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s media-driven cult of personality has lots and lots and lots of parallels for an American audience.
Right-wing groups are quietly embarking on a plan to station police officers at polling places this November.
Walmart’s about to launch an Amazon Prime competitor called Walmart+. The $98/year service will largely match Amazon Prime’s capabilities alongside added extras like same-day grocery delivery and discounted gas.

Marketing/Advertising/PR

Meet the Apple Design Awards winners.
TGI Fridays is rebranding and ditching the TGI Fridays name: Meet Fridays.
The crazy story of how unknown parties linked to Middle Eastern governments like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates made up some fake journalists and successfully got the fake journalists’ articles (Full of talking points, of course!) published in right-wing publications like Newsmax and the Washington Examiner.
Big news on the corporate/government communications front: Glover Park Group is merging with Finsbury and Hering Schuppener.
Great read from Tim O’Brien in the Muck Rack blog about professional services branding: “What do they say about your firm when you’re not in the room?”

Media

evelyn douek explains at Slate what coordinated inauthentic behavior on social media is, and why any politician worth their salt in 2020 has an army of fake Twitter accounts and weird Facebook pages publishing rage-y stories for gullible people to click on.
How Padma Lakshmi’s new Hulu show carries a quiet political message.
America’s most viewed morning show is now the Spanish-language Despierta America on Univision.
Journalists writing about Quibi is now an established media beat.
A great thead from Kristen Meinzer about anti-public school bias in NYC media.
Kristen Meinzer @kristenmeinzer
1/7 In my early days of working in the media in NYC, a coworker said, "It's interesting how most midwesterners go to state schools; I guess you all like to stick close to home." I was shocked by the classism. I said nothing. But here's what I wish I would have said:
8:29 PM ∙ Jul 4, 2020
59,505Likes11,946Retweets

Tech

Troubled-yet-has-really-good-tech VR startup Magic Leap has a new CEO: Ex-Microsoft exec Peggy Johnson.
The debate inside the infosec/hacker community about retiring the terms “Black Hat” and “White Hat” hacker.
Consolidation of the restaurant delivery platforms continues with Uber acquiring Postmates.
In COVID world, bosses love creepy software that tracks the websites employees visit and how fast they’re typing.
Venmo making a new play for small businesses with Business Profiles on the platform.
Police officers secretly took over a multinational organized crime phone network.

Fun

Iconic NHL mascot Gritty finally gets his own Queer Eye episode.
The syllabus and reading list from Sun Ra’s 1971 UC Berkeley course.
What happens when a 10 year old discovers the Sex Pistols.
TikTok subculture of the week: Excel tutorials on TikTok.
If you don’t have a Zoom shirt, are you really Zooming?

A genuine thank you for spending time with this newsletter. Likes? Dislikes? Suggestions for future coverage? Write me at neal@nealungerleider.com.