Facebook announced its plan to expand its new feature ‘Facebook News’ to more countries after launching in the UK and US.
The announcement came alongside its plan to launch the feature in the UK on Tuesday, making it its second market.
Facebook took an interest in journalism and partnered with several internal news outlets like The Guardian, Vogue, Daily Mail Group, Channel 4, Sky News to provide news.
This is to build the relationship between the media and the tech industry.
It said the platform would be a dedicated space for local, national and lifestyle news.
Also, Facebook said the project aims to build a sustainable business for the future of journalists and publishers.
Facebook, described the project as “a series of international investment”.
Over the years, there has been friction between the two industries, media and tech.
There wasn’t really room for personalised publishers to make personalised money because the big tech giants have taken advertising funds.
So, Facebook has created the opportunity to give back to the media industry.
In a blog post, Facebook said that the project would put journalism in front of new audiences.
It also believed that publishers will be provided with advertising and subscription opportunities, which would lead to future income.
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Expansion and partnership
Facebook said it would be expanding its new project.
It also plans on investing in more news and publishers.
“As we invest more in the news, and pay publishers for more content in more countries, we will work with them to support the long-term viability of newsrooms,” Facebook said.
It also announced extending the Community News Project (CNP) for a year and investing an additional $3M/£2.25M in local journalism.
This would be used to train reporters in about 80 newsrooms; partnering with the National Council For the Training of Journalists (NCTJ).
Facebook adds that its goal is to build on its effort of sustaining and national and local journalism; creating more value for publishers.
The giant company further spoke on its expansion plan for ‘Facebook News’; It said the app would be available to other countries, including France and Germany.
“We’ll continue to learn, listen and improve Facebook News as it rolls out across the UK and into other markets, including France and Germany, where we are in active negotiations with partners.”
Also, it adds that the environment needs to be regulated for the company to transition its feature into other countries.
“In order to bring Facebook News and other news products that help publishers transition in the digital age to more countries, it is critical that regulatory environments invite this kind of investment and innovation.”
Features of ‘Facebook News’
With the new product, users will see headlines and top stories as well as personalised news according to their interests.
It would also be accessible through a tap on the vertically arranged three dots for more options.
However, Facebook added that it would provide timely stories, highlighting trusted and authoritative stories.
An example is the original story of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Facebook adds that it doesn’t limit its user control on the app; it gives it access to control whatever stories they want to see on their app.
Also, any News article a user likes or share would appear on its Newsfeed.
Facebook added that the product, ‘Facebook News,’ resulted from its past discussion with news organisations on building a sustainable business model.
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