Advertising
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sat down with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner to discuss the role of Facebook and technology in the
media industry. - During the talk, Zuckerberg said he was considering creating a dedicated tab for news on Facebook that would feature "high-quality, trustworthy content."
- Zuckerberg said that such a news feature wouldn't be a ploy for revenue, and that Facebook would potentially pay publishers to feature their content on the social platform.
Facebook could soon have a new section of its site that's dedicated to news and emphasizes "high quality, trustworthy content."
Mark Zuckerberg raised the possibility in a video he posted to Facebook discussing the relationship between Facebook and the news media with Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of publisher Axel Springer.
To ensure that such a news "tab" on Facebook would feature the most high-quality content, Zuckerberg floated the idea of paying publishers to let Facebook feature their content.
Read more: Facebook is going to start explaining why stuff shows up in your newsfeed
This comes less than a week after the European Union passed a slew of new digital copyright laws. The new policies give news publishers the right to negotiate licenses with news aggregating companies, like Facebook, that use their content.
"YouTube, Facebook and Google News are some of the internet household names that will be most directly affected by this legislation," the EU says.
During his talk with Döpfner, Zuckerberg said the new EU copyright reforms were "something we need to think about."
Zuckerberg didn't go into specifics about how the pay structure would work, but he said that having a "direct relationship" with publishers would make sure their content is available on Facebook.
"That's definitely something that I think we should be thinking about here, because the relationship between us and publishers is different in a surface where we're showing the content on the basis of us believing that it's high-quality, trustworthy content," Zuckerberg told Döpfner.
The dedicated news section would be available to all Facebook users for free.
Zuckerberg emphasized in his talk with Döpfner that he still sees Facebook's News Feed as a place where people primarily go to connect with friends and family. The separate news tab would exist for "people who have a demand to want more news."
Zuckerberg and Döpfner discussed the business model and ecosystem that would support such a news tab, including whether Facebook would hire a dedicated team of editors and journalists to run and manage the news content.
Facebook's head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, weighed in on Zuckerberg's comments on her own Facebook page, saying she "can't wait to connect with publishers large and small, local and international as we kick off these discussions."
Zuckerberg's remarks mark a 180-degree spin from the company's move to de-emphasize content from publishers at the start of 2018. Zuckerberg said last January that featuring less "public content" from media and brands would help users "have more meaningful social interactions" with more content from friends and family.
In the past, Facebook has unsuccessfully trialed separate sections on the platform dedicated to news and publisher content. Facebook tested out an "Explore Feed" in six countries, but abandoned the trial in March 2018.
Watch the full discussion between Zuckerberg and Döpfner below:
Disclosure: Axel Springer is Business Insider's parent company.