Facebook unveils its new foray into news
Facebook and the publishing industry have long been frenemies: Occasionally they teamed up, but mostly they competed.
Now the two sides have formed an uneasy truce.
Facebook unveiled Facebook News, its latest foray into digital publishing, Friday. It is a new section of the social network’s mobile app that is dedicated entirely to news content, which the company is betting will bring users back to the site regularly for updates on sports, entertainment, politics and tech.
Facebook News will offer stories from a mix of publica
tions, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, as well as digitalonly outlets like BuzzFeed and Business Insider. Some stories will be chosen by a team of professional journalists, while others will be tailored to readers’ interests over time using Facebook’s machinelearning technology.
“We feel acute responsibility, because there’s obviously an awareness that the internet has disrupted the news industry business model,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview. “We’ve figured out a different way to do this that we think is going to be better and more sustainable.”
Facebook will pay for a range of content from dozens of publishers — including striking some deals well into the millions of dollars — and get local news from smaller publishers in metropolitan markets like DallasFort Worth, Miami and Atlanta.
“Mark Zuckerberg seems personally and professionally committed to ensuring that highquality journalism has a viable, valued future,” News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement. “It is absolutely appropriate that premium journalism is recognized and rewarded.”
Another Facebook News partner is Breitbart, the farright digital publisher. Unlike the Times, the Post and other paid partners, Breitbart will not be paid, and only articles the site posts on Facebook will be eligible for the tab. Still, the inclusion of Breitbart, which its former chairman Steve Bannon once called “a platform for the altright,” provoked outrage from some political activists.
During a discussion about Facebook News between Zuckerberg and Thomson in New York on Friday, Zuckerberg declined to address Breitbart’s inclusion specifically. But he said, “I think you want to have content that represents different perspectives, but is doing so in a way that complies with the standards that we have.”
The relationship between Facebook and publishers has been strained. Because Facebook and Google dominate the online advertising market, taking in together as much as 80% of the revenue, publishers have viewed the tech giants as stymieing their digital expansions.
Facebook has over the years courted publishers for different journalism projects, like Instant Articles and Facebook Live.
But those relationships soured as Facebook often shifted its strategy, leaving publishers feeling abused when the social network abandoned its original plans.
Zuckerberg acknowledged the tension between Facebook and publishers, and he said past experiences informed his current approach.
“It’s not a onetime thing,” he said of the new partnerships with publishers. “That’s why the deals we are structuring are longterm commitments, not two months, not one year, but multiple years.
“We think we’ve worked out the formula through all these conversations where we now can sustainably pay for content.”