Facebook testing News Feed change in six countries, moving non-promoted posts from Pages to a secondary feed, decreasing engagement for some media
Unless They Pay Karissa Bell / Mashable : Facebook just added a bunch of hidden Easter eggs you can unlock by typing special words Casey Newton : Facebook imagines a News Feed without the news [The Interface] Tim Peterson / Marketing Land : Facebook tests removing organic Page posts from News Feed Josh Constine / TechCrunch : Facebook downplays test banishing all Pages to buried Explore Feed Jeff Higgins / Hacker Noon : “Why Does Facebook Hate Me?” or “I Should Have Seen This Coming From A Mile Away.” Kurt Wagner / CNBC : Publishers might have to start paying Facebook if they want anyone to see their stories Mix / The Next Web : Facebook's reach-killing test in Slovakia is a big warning to all media Hillary Grigonis / Digital Trends : Facebook split news feed could take out the ‘news’ with a friends-only feed Tweets: Peter Kafka / @pkafka : Conspiracy angle: fb wants more $ from publishers! More accurate, and dispiriting angle (for publishers): fb doesn't care about publishers. http://twitter.com/... @mattnavarra : The ‘social media manager for publishers’ rule book should now just be set on fire http://techcrunch.com/... Scott Rosenberg / @scottros : How many thousands of intelligent journalists shook their heads 5 yrs ago when FB opened the spigot, predicting this day? http://twitter.com/... Adam Mosseri / @mosseri : Among others. Most ranking changes are tested for days or weeks, but given how significant a change this is we'll likely run it for months. Adam Mosseri / @mosseri : It's about friends personal stories more than links - question is do people learn and enjoy using a separate feed for public content or not? Zeynep Tufekci / @zeynep : “Users' engagement with Facebook pages drop precipitously, from 60% to 80%”—end of news on FB unless its pay-to-play http://www.theguardian.com/... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : The way I read this: Facebook putting more emphasis on the links your friends share with you vs. links pages share: http://www.theguardian.com/... Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : The old AOL feint: Publishers might have to start paying Facebook if they want anyone to see their stories http://www.recode.net/... Andrew Jude / @arajanathan : Also being trialled in Dubai was using it during my holiday last week. http://twitter.com/... @niemanlab : In several countries, Facebook is testing putting posts by pages into a separate ‘Explore Feed’ section http://medium.com/... http://twitter.com/... Katherine Griwert / @kgriwert : Was so inspired at a @facebook Journalism Project meet-up last month... And now this. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... [reported by @alexhern] pic.twitter.com/j7oPGEnZoE Jim Waterson / @jimwaterson : Can't wait for Facebook's potential newsfeed changes to force media companies to pivot to bankruptcy. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : If this goes global, (I think it will) it may be Facebook's way of ripping band aid on tortured relationship it's had with pages from start Josh Elman / @joshelman : I still don't get why this surprises anyone. Facebook's #1 job is to ensure that people see the content they want. http://www.recode.net/... Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller : Hey let's just totally reorganize media in Serbia and see what happens. I mean it's Serbia what could go wrong? https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Amy Siskind / @amy_siskind : Every few years we shift how we consume news. If FB does this, will be beginning of their end. Greed. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Frank Pasquale / @frankpasquale : Facebook 3-step: 1) Give publisher exposure for free 2) Publishers pay for reach 3) “No one sees it unless you pay” https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Ryan Brown / @toadsanime : This is very bad news for a lot of outlets, both big and small - as well as consumers for a balanced news feed, rather than just ads. Facebook's greed strikes again. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Joshua Benton / @jbenton : This would be awful for publishers short-term, but making Facebook less about news...doesn't sound that bad, actually https://medium.com/... Mathew Ingram / @mathewi : Facebook is testing a dramatic change to the news feed, and some pages have seen their traffic drop by more than 50% https://medium.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This test is the sharpest step yet in a sequence that began with Facebook's algorithmic demotion of clickbait headlines in 2016: the platform has been steadily re-ranking publisher content out of the main feed, and now it is testing removal altogether in six countries, with only promoted posts guaranteed main-feed placement.
The move previews the bargain publishers were later forced into — by 2019 Zuckerberg was publicly arguing platforms should fund news partnerships (his event with News Corp's Robert Thomson), a posture Meta reversed in 2022 when it stopped paying its US News Tab partners and reallocated News tab resources toward creators. The 2017 test is where the leverage became explicit.
First-order effects
- Publishers and media pages in the six test countries lose most organic reach overnight, since non-promoted Page posts shift to a secondary Explore-style feed with reported steep traffic drops for some outlets.
Second-order effects
- With organic distribution throttled, the practical path back to the main feed is paid promotion — converting reach Facebook previously gave away into auction inventory, and pushing publishers to weigh direct reader channels over the platform.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, news distribution on social platforms becomes contract-based rather than default: platforms pay (or don't) on negotiated terms, as Meta's later entry into and exit from paid News Tab deals shows, leaving publishers structurally dependent on terms they don't set.
The trend: Social platforms are converting news from free default distribution into negotiated, revocable inventory — a lever Facebook first tested here and exercised fully when it withdrew News Tab payments in 2022.