At an event with News Corp's Robert Thomson, Mark Zuckerberg says every internet platform has a responsibility to fund and form partnerships for news
media biz dev geniuses in my timeline today Michael Nuñez / @michaelfnunez : Couple of interesting details so far: - Zuck admits “majority of people don't use [secondary tabs]” meaning Marketplace, Groups, Watch, Dating, etc. - Zuck says News Tab will start small (200K US users) but he says “I think we can get to 20-30 million” Mathew Ingram / @mathewi : Thompson making this sound like the Holy Grail of news, because Facebook is paying a handful of news companies a sum of money that for Zuckerberg is the equivalent of me giving the guy outside the bus station a quarter for coffee https://twitter.com/... Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis : Oy again. Breitbart will be include in the news tab. Won't be paid, says The Times, but articles Breitbart posts to FB will be eligible for inclusion. https://www.nytimes.com/... Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis : Publishers can run their own ads on their news tab content and keep the revenue or they can use FB's ad network and still get “the vast majority of the revenue.” Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis : Zuckerberg: “This is going to be the first time that we're forming long-term, stable relationships and partnerships with publishers.” Nailing the rug down so it can't be pulled is critical for publishers! Mathew Ingram / @mathewi : I'm convinced one of the reasons News Corp. is doing this is so it can put pressure on Google to pay up for news https://twitter.com/... Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis : In short: Thompson et al can be bought. Will Oremus / @willoremus : This is something Apple News and the Washington Post wrestle with as well, obviously. It's good that Zuck doesn't plan to prohibit Facebook coverage in FB News. But if you're curating news for FB for a living, hard to imagine you don't at least think twice.... https://twitter.com/... Jessica Lessin / @jessicalessin : No better example of how a biz models shapes biz decisions than Facebook's unfortunate move to include Breitbart, which is far more advocacy than journalism, in its News Tab. The ad biz pushes companies to a “both-sides ism” that thankfully reader-supported businesses can ignore. Peter Kafka / @pkafka : This Nixon-to-China Facebook-to-News Corp presser is such a big deal that @gaberivera has left Brooklyn to attend. Aaron Nagler / @aaronnagler : Why would ANY kind of publisher trust FB ever again? Smh https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
@Jessicalessin Except... Facebook including Breitbart is almost certainly a political decision on FB's part. And there are plenty of subscriber-based businesses that both-sides it.
Zuckerberg defends having far-right website Breitbart in its news tab: “I think you want to have content that represents different perspectives,” Zuckerberg says, adding that all outlets will still have to comply with standards Facebook has set.
Just to remind everyone , News Corp is boosting a new product from Facebook for journalism , hailing it as a new platform. Is this journalism's Free Basics moment? Where it hands over it's development to an unaccountable business ...or is it politically significant ahead of 2020
Yes, this is political. FB can't be hated by both sides and needs political protection. If the Dem demand is “don't exist” and the GOP demand is “carry our content”, running for protection from the latter is much more palatable. https://twitter.com/...
Great question from @sarafischer to MZ: Will FB's human editors for the news tab include stories that are critical of FB? She points out that Bloomberg News doesn't cover Mike Bloomberg, a policy MZ didn't know about...
FB's history is clearest on this subject: trusting the company to be a good partner has never been wise. Why the Facebook News tab shouldn't be trusted - TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/...
Facebook is paying publishers for the same reason it structures political ads. Zuckerberg is buying political power and influence. https://techcrunch.com/...
@pkafka Exactly. Facebook faces such political decisions because it needs to appear neutral to avoid alienating advertisers. Newspapers did too, when advertising paid the bills. Subscription has to resist the urge to play to the base, so both models have challenges.
A quote from Zuck that would be hard to imagine a few years ago: “It's no secret the internet has really disrupted the new business model. I just think every internet platform has a responsibility to fund and form partnerships for news.” https://variety.com/...
Thompson puts Zuckerberg on the spot and asks whether FB can pay local papers. He touts the separate product they've been developing: Today In, a local tab. He says he hopes to have financial relations there. Then he touts FB's $300m commitment to news.
Also: “local newsrooms fear being left behind” is kind of a grotesque understatement of the problem of no local news. Isn't it more “humans fear democracy being dismantled?” https://www.cnn.com/...
Some news publishers will be paid for providing their content to Facebook, but others will not. And some local newsrooms, already struggling, are worried about being left behind. https://edition.cnn.com/...
BuzzFeed CEO @Peretti says “it's a good day for the internet” because Facebook is paying $$ for access to publishers' content. “For the first time, we're seeing the platforms step up and take responsibility for their role in the news ecosystem,” he says https://www.cnn.com/...
@sarafischer asks how News curators will handle stories about the company Zuck: “The team is going to be independent. For better or worse, we're a prominent part of the news cycle. I don't think it would be reasonable to have a News tab that didn't cover what Facebook was doing”
The timing is curious to me. Facebook rolled out a big new product for publishers in late 2015 (FB live) and paid them to use it. Now we're heading into 2020 and a similar story seems to be playing out.
“Turn down millions of dollars for work you've already done, because previous Facebook deals were not very good!” — media biz dev geniuses in my timeline today
Couple of interesting details so far: - Zuck admits “majority of people don't use [secondary tabs]” meaning Marketplace, Groups, Watch, Dating, etc. - Zuck says News Tab will start small (200K US users) but he says “I think we can get to 20-30 million”
Thompson making this sound like the Holy Grail of news, because Facebook is paying a handful of news companies a sum of money that for Zuckerberg is the equivalent of me giving the guy outside the bus station a quarter for coffee https://twitter.com/...
Oy again. Breitbart will be include in the news tab. Won't be paid, says The Times, but articles Breitbart posts to FB will be eligible for inclusion. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Publishers can run their own ads on their news tab content and keep the revenue or they can use FB's ad network and still get “the vast majority of the revenue.”
Zuckerberg: “This is going to be the first time that we're forming long-term, stable relationships and partnerships with publishers.” Nailing the rug down so it can't be pulled is critical for publishers!
This is something Apple News and the Washington Post wrestle with as well, obviously. It's good that Zuck doesn't plan to prohibit Facebook coverage in FB News. But if you're curating news for FB for a living, hard to imagine you don't at least think twice.... https://twitter.com…
No better example of how a biz models shapes biz decisions than Facebook's unfortunate move to include Breitbart, which is far more advocacy than journalism, in its News Tab. The ad biz pushes companies to a “both-sides ism” that thankfully reader-supported businesses can ignore.