Twitter is ready to acquire newsletter publishing platform Revue for an undisclosed amount, as it looks to foray into long-form content and subscription-oriented products.
Post the acquisition, Twitter will be making Revue’s Pro features available for free to all accounts and will be lowering the cut it takes from paid newsletters to 5% from the current 6% fee.
Revue’s service, which lets people manage newsletter publishing and subscriptions, will continue operating as a “standalone service” within Twitter, the company said Tuesday in a blog announcing the deal.
“Revue will accelerate our work to help people stay informed about their interests while giving all types of writers a way to monetise their audience – whether it’s through the one they built at a publication, their website, on Twitter, or elsewhere,” Twitter said in a blog post.
According to Twitter executives, we can expect audience-based monetization to be an area that we’ll continue to develop new ways to support. Twitter has also confirmed that it’s considering options for its own subscription service.
Founded in 2015, Revue allowed writers and publishers to send free and paid newsletters along with other features like subscriber management, cross-publishing to other platforms, and engagement insights among others. Its customers include Chicago Sun Times, The Markup, and Vox Media. Revue’s six-person team, which is based in Utrecht, Netherlands, will join Twitter, which said it will hire to expand the unit.
Twitter has made a number of acquisitions in recent months, primarily small startups to bring on their personnel. Since early December, Twitter has purchased social video app Squad, podcast company Breaker, and a 50-person design firm Ueno.