[ryanbrunner]

Typically you charge for something that has value for your users.

A blue checkmark that verifies that you are in fact the organization you say you are has value. But that's not what a paid checkmark is - @NewYorkT1mes can get a blue checkmark too. It's simply an indicator that you paid for Twitter, which in and of itself has very little value.

(It's also some other stuff like boosting your tweets which has value, but the idea that the paid checkmark is anything like the old verified checkmark is a bait and switch).