Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has news on the mind.
On Wednesday morning, Facebook rolled out its long-rumored deal that lets content publishers like NBC News and The New York Times post their articles directly to Facebook's iOS app.
This is a major deal for publishing and could completely change the game and disrupt the media industry as we know it.
There are has several benefits for all the parties involved, including readers.
Here are some of them:
- Readers win because they don't need to leave Facebook just to read these articles; these Instant Articles should load much faster as a result. That makes for a better experience.
- Publishers win because Facebook gives them 100% of the revenue from ads that appear inside these "Facebook Instant" articles - the only time this changes is if Facebook sells the ads through its Audience Network mobile ad network, in which it keeps 30% of the revenue and gives 70% to the publisher.
- Another benefit to publishers: According to TechCrunch, Facebook will share all the necessary analytics so all audiences are accounted for and no numbers are lost in the shuffle. Publishers can also use the Facebook Audience Network to extend Facebook campaigns outside of Facebook if they want to sell any leftover ads.
- Facebook wins because this solidifies the social network as a go-to place for news. If Facebook Instant Articles reach more readers than a typical article shared on Facebook, publishers have a big reason to work with Facebook and use its mobile ad network. And if more publishers work with Facebook, it will become extremely relevant to an even broader demographic - those people who scour the web for all sorts of information, not just the stuff posted by their friends.
FacebookThis is what a Facebook Instant Article looks like.You might be wondering, "Why does Facebook want to be a news site?" The answer is simple: Facebook is, and has always been, about sharing. Offering the news gives people something to talk about, to share with others.
That's why Facebook has been aping some of the most popular aspects of Twitter, a popular social site that's exceedingly good at broadcasting the news: Facebook introduced Twitter-like hashtags in 2013, and added Twitter-like trending topics last January. (It also debuted Paper, a personalized news feed that takes into account what your friends are liking and posting, last year.)
Right now, Twitter is the go-to social network for news. Facebook, it seems, would like to rip that mantle away. This new service is a big first step.
With this in mind, Facebook Instant Articles shouldn't surprise anybody. It's experimental, but if it's successful it could have broad implications on the future of news publishing. In time, these content partnerships could make Facebook the best place to get all news, not just personal news, regardless of the source.
That would make Facebook the de facto place for all kinds of information: personal news, local news, and global news. But right now, it simply positions Facebook to better compete with Twitter, which, despite its growth issues, is still the best place on the web to get real-time information.