Facebook is looking to compete directly with Flipboard and other news reader apps with its own offering that goes by the name 'Paper.'

Facebook is always looking to offer the best thing to its users, and it seems as if the social network believes it can make a difference in the new aggregate field with a new app called Paper, which it will reportedly launch at the end of January if everything goes well with the development.

At the moment, it is not clear if Paper will be a stand-alone app or something users can access from within their web browsers.

According to Re/Code, Paper is similar to Flipboard in many ways. From what we understand, Paper will display content from The Washington Post, The New York Times, and other publications in a visually appealing manner. Apparently, contents will be mixed with Facebook status updates from friends, though it is not certain how that would improve the user experience or make the app better compared to what is available right now.

"Paper and Flipboard share a number of similarities, according to this person. Both essentially act as aggregators of rich media content, displaying a mix of news stories from publications like the New York Times or the Washington Post, along with status updates from Facebook users - all in a visually stunning "paper-like" format hearkening back to a time before digital devices," Re/Code reported.

The project has been in development for a number of years, though it is not certain when did it begin. We understand it is being developed by team behind the Facebook News Feed so it could turn out to be something special. However, like many of Facebook's standalone projects, it might not last long in the public's eye.

Paper, Flipboard killer?

Paper could well turn out to be a Flipboard killer as the Paper will incorporate key Facebook features that are not found in Flipboard. Users might have the ability to easily share content to their Timeline for their friends to see, which could boost the popularity of the app. However, we have to bear in mind that this is Facebook, the company with a number of failed projects in recent history.

We've seen several Facebook projects launched in the past that failed to keep users captivated. The social network has failed to keep users coming back for more, and suffice to say, Paper might be heading for the same results if something is not done to market standalone projects in a more convincing manner.