News websites had been unhappy with the way Facebook hid their articles and that ate up their revenue as the majority of the news was ignored by its algorithm and didn't reach users. The tables are soon going to turn as Facebook has decided to launch a new tab called ''News Tab'' in which publications can share news and the social media giant will also pay the publishers.
The News Tab will be available as a new section in the Facebook mobile app and will display headlines for the time being. When a user clicks on the headlines, it would be diverted to the particular link of the publisher. As of now, Facebook is considering to display headlines from top media outlets like Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, Business Insider, NBC, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, among others.
The good thing is that 'local stories' from several of the largest cities and small towns in the USA will also make the News Tab. ''Headlines from smaller towns are on their way,'' said Facebook. Publishers have been requesting Facebook for these options for years and finally, the social media giant has thought to give it a shot.
Facebook also faced criticism for allowing fake news to freely circulate across its platform and reach a wider section of its users. The misinformation ran deep and even affected election outcomes. It's a welcome step by Facebook to now allow publishers to post news which is true and authentic.
However, the American company declined to state how much it would pay the publishers for their news headlines. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Associated Press in an interview, ''there's an opportunity to set up new long term, stable financial relationships with publishers. We think that this is an opportunity to build something quite meaningful here. We're going to have journalists curating this, we are really focused on provenance and branding and where the stories come from." A spokesperson from the company said they would allow ''a range of publishers for access to all of their content."
Facebook said they'll employ a small team of journalists who will choose the headlines for the "Today's Story" section of the tab and design to catch up with users on the day's news. The rest of the news section will be populated with stories based on the user's interests and algorithms.
