INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Facebook news section, which waspreviously reported to be imminent, is here: The company is rolling out Facebook News in a limited test in
as a home screen tab and bookmark in the main Facebook app.
In a blog post, Facebook Campbell Brown (vice president of global news
partnerships) and Mona Sarantakos (product manager, news) said that news articles will continue to appear in the main News Feed
However, they said that creating a specific tab focused on journalism &gives people more control over the stories they see, and the ability
to explore a wider range of their news interests, directly within the Facebook app.&
Brown and Sarantakos added that the News tab was
developed in consultation with publishers, and also based on feedback from a survey of more than 100,000 Facebook users in the United States
earlier this year.
It sounds like Facebook News will use both human editors and algorithms to determine which stories you see — an unusual
move for a company that been hesitant to police the content posted by users and advertisers
Specifically, there will be a section called Today Stories, curated by a team of journalists to highlight the biggest national news stories
of the day.
At the same time, Facebook will also provide algorithmic story suggestions based on your interests and activity
You&ll be able to hide articles, topics and publishers you don&t want to see, and browse sections devoted to business, entertainment,
health, science and technology, and sports — topics where Facebook users apparently felt underserved.
&Regarding personalization,
publishers worry that machine learning has limits and they&re right,& Brown and Sarantakos wrote
&We have progress to make before we can rely on technology alone to provide a quality news destination.&
Nonetheless, they suggested that
algorithms will be &driving the majority of Facebook News,& and that they&ll be working to ensure that those algorithms are also surfacing
&new forms of journalism in the digital age, including individual, independent journalism.&
Also included: a section where users who have
linked their news subscriptions to their Facebook accounts can browse content from those subscriptions.
Which publishers will be included?
Brown and Sarantakos said they must be part of Facebook News Page Index, and also abide by the company Publisher Guidelines, which includes
prohibitions against misinformation (as flagged by third-party fact checkers) and hate speech.
Facebook did not provide a list of
participating publishers, but screenshots of the News section include stories from The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Washington Post,
BuzzFeed News, Bloomberg, Fox Business, Business Insider, NPR and others; spokespeople for The Post, BuzzFeed and the LA Times confirmed
their participation.
So even if publishers have been burned by relying too much on the social network in the past, it sounds like they&re
not going to give up on working with Facebook.
It probably helps that the company is paying some of these publishers millions of dollars a
year, according to Recode
(A Facebook spokesperson told me, &To ensure we&re including a range of topic areas, we&ll start by paying a subset of publishers who can
provide a steady volume of fact-based and original content.&)
BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith told me via email that BuzzFeed is
&glad to participate& and that &Facebook is taking the lead in recognizing the value news provides to these platforms in a tangible
way.&
And Hillary Manning, the Los Angeles Times& vice president of communications, said (also via email), &We anticipate that we&ll reach
new readers through Facebook News and, as we reach more readers, we expect to see more growth in our digital subscriber base.&
Facebook says
News will be available to a limited group of users in the U.S., starting today.
Why the Facebook News tab shouldn&t be trusted
