Twitter announced this morning that it would be adopted Scroll, a subscription service that provides readers with a better way to read long-form content on the web by removing ads and other clutter from the site that can slow down the experience. The service will become part of Twitter's larger plans to invest in subscriptions and will later be offered as one of the premium features Twitter will offer subscribers.
Premium subscribers can use Scroll to easily read their articles in news outlets and in Twitter's own newsletter product Revue, another recently acquired acquisition that has already been integrated with the Twitter service. When subscribers use Scroll through Twitter, a portion of their subscription revenue is used for the editors and authors who create the content, Twitter explains in one announcement.
Today's service from Scroll operates in hundreds of locations including The Atlantic, The Verge, USA Today, The Sacramento Bee, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Daily Beast. For readers, the scrolling experience is similar to a "reader's view" - it removes ads, trackers, and other website junk so readers can focus on the content.
Scroll's bad luck for publishers was that it can deliver cleaner content that can make more money than advertising alone.
The terms of the contract were not disclosed, but Twitter will bring the entire scrolling team together, a total of 13 people.
Currently, Scroll will suspend new customer signups so it can focus on integrating its product with Twitter's subscription work and preparing for the expected growth. However, it will continue on board new publishers who want to join the Scroll Network after signing the contract.
And Scroll itself will be back in private beta while the team works to integrate the product with Twitter.
Twitter says it will also be hosting the Nuzzel product of Scroll's news aggregator, but will work over time to bring some of the core elements of Nuzzel to Twitter.
"Twitter is used for public conversation. Journalism is the mitochondria of this conversation. It initiates, energizes and informs. It converts and confuses perspectives. At best, it helps us stand in each other's shoes and understand each other's common humanity, "said Tony Haile, CEO of Scroll, in the Corporate Post on Acquiring Scroll.
"The mission that Jack and the Twitter team gave us is simple: take the model and platform that Scroll created and scale it up so that anyone who uses Twitter has the ability to have a frictionless and Experiencing frustration - a great gathering of people who love the news and pay to support it sustainably, "he added.
Twitter detailed its plans for subscriptions earlier this year to diversify beyond ad revenue for its own business. The company introduced Super Follow, a developer-focused subscription that gives paid subscribers access to an expanded range of perks including exclusive content, subscriber-only newsletters, offers, badges, paywall media and more . The company intends to use this new product to meet its goal of doubling company sales from $ 3.7 billion in 2020 to $ 7.5 billion or more in 2023.
