SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook said Monday it plans to pay only a portion of thepublishers whose stories appear in a news “tab” set to launch in the weeksahead.
Facebook recently confirmed plans for a News Tab that will be edited byseasoned journalists, in a departure from its longstanding practice ofletting algorithms dictate a user’s experience.
A human team will select relevant, reliable breaking and top news stories.
“The number of publishers included in the news tab will grow over time,”Facebook spokeswoman Mari Melguizo said in response to an AFP inquiry.
“To ensure we’re including a range of topic areas, we’ll start by paying asubset of publishers who can provide a steady volume of fact-based andoriginal content.”
A Wall Street Journal report earlier Monday said Facebook planned to payabout a quarter of the estimated 200 news organizations whose articles willbe featured.
The tab will be separate from the trademark news feed at Facebook thatdisplays updates and content from people’s friends, according to theCalifornia-based online social network.
Aside from human-curated top news, sections of the tab will rely onalgorithms to figure out a user’s interests based on “signals” such aspages followed, interactions with online news or subscriptions topublications.
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“Our goal with the News Tab is to provide a personalized, highly relevantexperience for people,” Facebook head of news partnerships Campbell Browntold AFP when the coming feature was revealed.
However the majority of stories people see will be determined by software,according to Brown.
Facebook Watch already allows users to peruse news shows funded by thesocial network and other on-demand online content.
Facebook has launched an array of initiatives to support or bolsterjournalism in recent years as social media has been under intense pressureto avoid becoming a tool to spread misinformation.
Earlier this year Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerbergsaid he wanted “to make sure that to the extent that we can, we’re fundingas much high-quality journalism as possible.”
The move comes with online platforms Facebook and Google dominating themarket for online advertising, making it harder for traditional newsorganizations to gain traction in digital. The two internet giants haveunveiled several initiatives aimed at helping the news industry andprofessional journalism. -APP/AFP
