Sources: Meta is considering reducing the money it gives news outlets and focusing on news content as short videos on Facebook rather than as links to articles
which executives originally thought could help improve relationships with media orgs—as the company's priorities shift. Story w/ @jtoonkel https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Mark Di Stefano / @markdistef : *lucy_yanks_the_ball.gif* https://www.theinformation.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
The Information
Context & Ripple Effects
This report is the earliest signal in Meta's multi-year unwind of paid news partnerships. What began as a consideration in May 2022 hardened by July, when Meta began telling its 50 US news partners it would no longer pay for News Tab content, ending a three-year deal from 2019 — and staff memos the same month confirmed resources were moving out of the News tab and Bulletin toward the creator economy.
US news partners face the loss of licensing revenue they had booked against Facebook's News Tab, with no replacement traffic benefit if news becomes in-app short video rather than outbound links to their sites.
Second-order effects
Publishers must choose between producing Facebook-native video — where they would compete with creators for a Reels ad pool Meta is only beginning to share — or abandoning the platform's news audience entirely.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, platform-news economics shift from licensing and referral traffic to creator-style ad splits, accelerating news organizations' decoupling from social distribution — a trajectory reinforced by Meta's parallel de-emphasis of political content across its apps.
The trend: Meta is unwinding direct payments for news and folding whatever news remains into its short-video and creator-economy machinery, ending the licensing era that began with News Tab deals in 2019.
This reporting comes on the heels of Canadian legislation which, if passed, would force Meta to pay licensing fees to news publishers. https://twitter.com/...
“Meta's Facebook and Instagram apps have lately focused on expanding their short-term video offerings so they can compete more effectively with TikTok” they don't seem to be having much luck with that. scammy creator rings dominate the Watch tab. https://twitter.com/...
@noUpside They dominate the whole platforms. At least 80% of the IG recs I see are just automated accounts reposting others' content with the caption “what do you think of this post?” in order to get lazy engagement. It generates no value but boosts internal metrics.
😂 @campbell_brown you do realize your team feeding something through The Information means absolutely nothing in terms of flex at this point? Bring it. That reporting below from Facebook whistleblowing in Australia isn't going away, just more evidence as to the company ethos. htt…
@dskok I cannot imagine that news is of much value on Facebook. I've long said that if FB had its choice, life'd be nicer for them with puppies and parties and no partisanship. So be careful what you demand, Canada, for you may end up with less than you have now.
Just wondering how long the contracts are for all those deals struck between Facebook and Australian media outlets post the media bargaining code...because the vibe is...familiar. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
Scoop: Meta is considering cutting its spending on news partnerships—which executives originally thought could help improve relationships with media orgs—as the company's priorities shift. Story w/ @jtoonkel https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@Techmeme If Meta were smart about this they'd be building a Google Reader alike for the niche news hyperfans to tempt them away from a Musk dominated twitter. Still, we have the indieweb version https://indieweb.org/...