Elon Musk plans XWire to take on news distribution platforms

Elon Musk is reportedly planning to launch his own news distribution service called XWire which will rival existing platforms for disseminating company PR news and press releases. In an all-hands meeting with employees addressed by both Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino, the news wire initiative was discussed, reports Bloomberg.

“The duo also referenced ambitions to create a news wire service called XWire, which would rival Cision’s PR Newswire,” the report mentioned, citing sources. Musk and Yaccarino did not divulge much on how X would better compete with platforms that distribute company news and press releases. As Instagram Threads is moving away from the news, X appears to be doubling down on news and even incentivising journalists to post original content and asking users to become citizen journalists.

Betting big on making X Corp a trusted news platform, Musk said last week that the platform is “open-source news” and whatever is relevant in legacy media is already available on X. “When fake news spreads on CNN, MSNBC, or in The New York Times or Washington Post, they get the final say and can double down on their false narrative,” the X user posted. Musk said “yes,” adding that X is an open-source news platform. “That is the right way to think about it. Anything relevant in legacy media is reposted here anyway,” he added.

Musk last month encouraged people to do citizen journalism on X. “Please encourage more citizen journalism! You can do live video easily from your phone. More on-the-ground reporting from regular citizens will change the world,” he said. In August, Musk invited journalists to publish directly on X (formerly Twitter) and earn a higher income. The company has also set its sights on competitors like YouTube and LinkedIn in terms of both videos and hiring with @XHiring account.

— IANS