Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Elon Musk sent his first email to Twitter employees on Wednesday evening, warning of a “challenging economic climate” ahead and the need for the company to launch Twitter Blue verified subscriptions to help “survive the upcoming economic downturn.”
After laying off half of Twitter’s workforce and gutting entire teams, Musk is battling advertisers who have paused their ad spend on the service in response to his takeover, chaotic management style, and his own tweets. Musk launched a new Twitter Blue subscription for $7.99 a month on Wednesday, allowing anyone in supported countries to pay for verification.
“We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription,” says Musk in his email to employees, but the verification push is off to a…