At first glance, this seems, at the same time, both weird and perfectly sensible.
while pushing its lead as the place to go for breaking news and discussion.
What Is Tomorrow?
NOAA / Unsplash
Tomorrow is a place to get news about your local weather.
Its a partnership between Twitter and meteorologistEric Holthaus, and is not a Twitter feature.
Rather, Tomorrow is Holthaus weather service, built using Twitters new tools.
NOAA / Unsplash
Twitter gets credibility and a showcase for its paid subscription features.
Initially, member questions will be done via email.
But really, its a regular weather news service, only its interactive, and it runs on Twitter.
One Trusted Source
So, whats in this for Twitter?
Why did it partner with Tomorrow?
Well, for one, its not unusual for a platform provider to partner with high-profile creators.
Spotify gave a kick to its audio program offering bypaying podcaster Joe Roganto switch to the platform.
Lets consider what people use Twitter for.
Sharing things and then discussing them.
Thats it, more or less.
Humans are also predisposed to talk about the weather.
The Tomorrow weather channel, then, has universal appeal right out of the gate.
Twitter, along with Facebook, also has a trust problem.
And yet, we still go directly to Twitter whenever we want to know about breaking news.
In Tomorrow, Twitter gets to be a trusted source rather than a cesspit of conflicting truths and lies.
Imagine if Twitter could actually be trusted.
Sometimes Twitter is the fastest for info, but not the most reliable."
Perfect Fit
So, Twitter gets credibility and a showcase for its paid subscription features.
Meanwhile, Eric Holthaus and his team get a paying platform and can build it up from there.
And Twitter offers a unique space for discussion and for building on that.
“Rather than an informative resource, Tomorrow will offer a social community.”
It looks like this partnership is all upside, and it could be.
But theres one more thing that Twitter brings to the relationship: Trolls.
If climate activism is on the table, then climate-change deniers will soon start buzzing around.
This may be the true test of Twitters new paid subscription tiers.
How well can a community flourish on Twitter if the trolls are kept outside the paywall?
The answer might be pretty positive.
