UK publishers to receive millions from Facebook as the platform prepares to launch Facebook News

Facebook announced on Monday that it will launch Facebook News in the UK in the new year. The initiative will not only give Facebook users a new way to engage with content on the platform, it will also provide many of the UK’s news outlets a new revenue stream. According to The Guardian, the social media giant will pay tens of millions to publishers and news organizations.

How will Facebook News work?

Facebook News will feature “a mix of curated and personalised top stories to deliver informative, reliable and relevant news.” In other words, it won’t be purely managed by an algorithm; there will be a team of editors curating content. According to the Guardian’s report, this team will be comprised of editors from the news curation app Upday. Upday is similar to Apple News, but designed for Samsung phones.

By using this mix of algorithmically served content and editorial curation, Facebook says that it wants to deliver both key daily headlines as well as more personalized stories that are tailored to a users interests. The company also sees Facebook News as playing an important role in information delivery “during major news cycles” where it will give readers “timely news digests, highlighting original and authoritative reporting on pressing topics.”

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What are the benefits of Facebook News for publishers?

The main benefit for publishers is that they’ll recieve a license fee from Facebook in exchange for their content being featured. It’s not known exactly how much money the company will pay out, but it’s likely to run into tens of millions.

But it’s not just about licensing. Facebook claims that Facebook News will help publisher grow their audience too. Citing data from Facebook News usage in the US, the company suggests that “more than 95% of the traffic Facebook News delivers to publishers is new audiences that have not interacted with those news outlets in the past.”

If this is true, then it’s not hard to see why many publishers and news organizations will find the initiative so attractive.

What’s the benefit for Facebook?

For Facebook, meanwhile, Facebook News will help to build the company’s relationship with the publishers it relies on. Given the difficulties many media organizations have had in recent years, and with Facebook being the cause of many of them (think of the pivot to video saga), this looks a lot like an olive branch.

But it’s not just about the platform/publisher relationship. From Facebook’s perspective, this move is also smart in the context of regulation. With regulators around the world looking closely at the amount of power Facebook wields over publishers, and how dependent organizations are on the platform, there have been talks of enforcing rules imposing taxes on the company to ensure that media still has the resources it needs to survive.

By demonstrating quite publically that it is willing to enter into substantial partnerships with media organizations, the company will be hoping that it can remove some of the pressure on it.

Who has signed up for Facebook News?

In a post announcing the news, Facebook says that publishers including Conde Nast, The Economist, ESI Media, Guardian Media Group, and Hearst have all agreed deals with the company.

The deal could also benefit local news outlets – MNA Media (an independent news organization that owns a range of publications across the UK’s midlands region), and Reach PLC (which owns a number of large regional newspapers around the country) have both agreed deals.

Will the feature be rolled out elsewhere?

It’s not clear how long it will take for Facebook News to be rolled out elsewhere, but Facebook are clear that it is part of its plan to roll it out elsewhere. “We’re in active negotiations to bring Facebook News to France and Germany as well,” the company states. “We will continue to work with publishers in countries where market conditions and regulatory environments invite this kind of investment and innovation.”