Reddit is planning to introduce a paywall this year, CEO Steve Huffman said during a videotaped Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Thursday.

Huffman previously showed interest in potentially introducing a new type of subreddit with “exclusive content or private areas” that Reddit users would pay to access.

When asked this week about plans for some Redditors to create “content that only paid members can see,” Huffman said:

It’s a work in progress right now, so that one’s coming… We’re working on it as we speak.

When asked about “new, key features that you plan to roll out for Reddit in 2025,” Huffman responded, in part: “Paid subreddits, yes.”

Reddit’s paywall would ostensibly only apply to certain new subreddit types, not any subreddits currently available.

Reddit executives also discussed how they might introduce more ads into the social media platform. The push for ads follows changes to Reddit’s API policy that, in part, led to the closing of most third-party apps used for accessing Reddit. Reddit makes most of its revenue from ads and can only show ads on its native apps and website.

Reddit started testing ads in comments last year, with COO Jen Wong saying during an AMA that such ads are in “about 3 percent of inventory.” The executive hinted at that percentage growing. Wong also shared hopes that contextual advertising, or ads being shown based on the content surrounding them, will be a “bigger part of” Reddit’s business by 2026.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    5 days ago

    Reddit has gotten so bad that it’s funny. I love reading about whatever awkward, bumbling cash grab they’re trying next.

    What’s a good word for constant, ongoing enshittification? Diarrheafication?

    • latenightnoir@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Funny and sad at the same time, to be honest… That douche busted up a lot of awesome communities with wonderful people, and he’s on the right track to ruin things completely…

        • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          Don’t be mistaken, he and his board will make tons of money from this. Everyone is rooting for the demise of the site, but the bad guys will win. So what everyone liked will be gone and dead, and those parasites will be even richer.