According to a new report, Facebook is willing to offer news outlets millions to license their content. What’s The News? Reports are circulating that Facebook has approached a number of news outlets about licensing their content. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Facebook would pay “as much as” $3 million a year for three years for the right to license headlines and article previews. Facebook would not confirm the move, but did confirm it plans to launch a news tab this fall. Big News The companies approached reportedly include ABC News’ parent company Disney (which did not immediately respond to a request for comment), The Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones, CNN, The Washington Post, Bloomberg (which all declined to comment) The New York Times (which reported it had been approached) and Buzzfeed. According to unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations, Facebook proposed giving news outlets discretion over how their content will appear in the news tab, and they would be allowed to choose between hosting stories directly on Facebook or including headlines and previews in the tab that would send readers to their own websites. Potentially, this could make the news tab a generator of web traffic for news outlets in addition to a source of licensing revenue. Local Business Google and Facebook have cut deeply into news organization’s online profits, as last year the two companies accounted for 60% of all digital advertising revenue in the U.S. Observers online have already begun to wonder why companies like The New York Times with strong subscriptions would want to work with Facebook, and pointing out that this move won’t help the local news outlets that have been hit the hardest by Facebook's advertising dominance. -Michael Tedder Photo: Charles Platiau / REUTERS Read More...
According to a new report, Facebook is willing to offer news outlets millions to license their content. What’s The News? Reports are circulating that Facebook has approached a number of news outlets about licensing their content. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Facebook would pay “as much as” $3 million a year for three years for the right to license headlines and article previews. Facebook would not confirm the move, but did confirm it plans to launch a news tab this fall. Big News The companies approached reportedly include ABC News’ parent company Disney (which did not immediately respond to a request for comment), The Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones, CNN, The Washington Post, Bloomberg (which all declined to comment) The New York Times (which reported it had been approached) and Buzzfeed. According to unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations, Facebook proposed giving news outlets discretion over how their content will appear in the news tab, and they would be allowed to choose between hosting stories directly on Facebook or including headlines and previews in the tab that would send readers to their own websites. Potentially, this could make the news tab a generator of web traffic for news outlets in addition to a source of licensing revenue. Local Business Google and Facebook have cut deeply into news organization’s online profits, as last year the two companies accounted for 60% of all digital advertising revenue in the U.S. Observers online have already begun to wonder why companies like The New York Times with strong subscriptions would want to work with Facebook, and pointing out that this move won’t help the local news outlets that have been hit the hardest by Facebook’s advertising dominance. -Michael Tedder Photo: Charles Platiau / REUTERS
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