• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 18, 2023

We have been seeing lots of big-time advertisers abandoning Twitter. Now some media organizations -- TV and otherwise -- are looking to drop content from the big social media service.

No worries for majority owner Elon Musk. Lots of people still go to Twitter for the short-term messaging and content, even if the likes PBS and NPR are abandoning the service.

Those two organizations are now labeled “government-funded media”.  NPR gets 0.6% from federal grants. The BBC is labeled “publicly-funded media” and RT (Russia state-affiliated media).

But what if many other media organizations follow the lead of NPR and PBS in not using the social media app? No worries there -- especially if TV reporters and editors act on their own to send tweets related to news they report or others. (But not official "re-tweets," of course)

For sure, Twitter looks to be a smaller revenue-bearing company -- in any event. Those big advertisers that are leaving in droves are probably not coming back. Musk counters that "most" advertisers have returned and that the service is “roughly breaking even.” 

Of course, all this is going to be a tough task to get a real revenue picture -- now that it has gone private.

Part and parcel of it is Twitter's effort to offer up a “subscription”-level access to the social media app. In return, those subscribers get better and improved access -- as well as perhaps better content that could come their way when it comes to their daily feeds. But not with NPR and PBS content apparently.

As a promotional vehicle, Twitter is a good tool. But news media -- even Fox News Channel -- should be valued through the quality of its news content in order to attract consumers.

Okay, then critics might say: define "value."

So this begs the question, if put side-by-side with other news organizations, should all news brands have qualifiers attached -- “state-affiliated media,” “state-controlled media,” “advertiser-controlled media,” or “advertiser-affiliated media.” Where does it stop?

As a free social-media enterprise, Twitter can do what it likes. But not everyone in future years may be depending on it -- especially as it moves away from once dominant advertising-based revenues to a healthy piece of its operation revenue coming from subscriptions.

MSNBC? Perhaps “leftist-thinking advertising-supported media?” Fox News? “Right-wing small advertiser-supported media"?

Maybe Twitter should change all labels weekly -- just to keep its social-media consumers on its toes.