Don't count Rich Eisen among the Twitter users who are pleased with Elon Musk's purchase of the social media giant and changes enacted on the platform including a complete overhaul of the blue verification checkmark.
In an interview with Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated for the SI Media Podcast, Eisen said he was able to make a profit off of his Rich Eisen Show Twitter account when the program left DirecTV in 2020.
"So the business was going well," Eisen said. "I mean I was making revenue through Twitter."
But now that has all changed for Rich since "Legacy verified" accounts not subscribed to Twitter Blue lost their checkmarks in April.
"I don't even look at the ledger of what's coming in from Twitter anymore. It is so minuscule," he said. "It's down 98%."
Twitter has since rolled out "Verified Organizations" which is similar to Twitter Blue and introduces gold or gray checkmarks for those organizations. It's $1,000 per month and an additional $50 per "affiliated account" which adds the blue checkmark and an organization-specific badge next to the checkmark on those accounts.
Eisen said all the new changes have just upended things for him and how he tries to operate his business.
"When I say he eviscerated the ad market for people like me and small business owners like me, it's understating it," he said. "So forget the blue checkmark."
Rich Eisen is far from the first sports media professional to complain that Twitter is a less fun, less effective way to market his content now. Mike Greenberg has said simply that it "sucks". Doug Gottlieb called verification on the platform "worthless". Don La Greca says he doesn't trust it. Joe Ovies says radio professionals should be using their efforts elsewhere.
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