Facebook's New Tactic for Journalism: A Timely Disruption from Antitrust Inspection

Staff Reporter, Tech Times 28 October 2019, 06:10 am

Facebook Tactic for Journalism — (Photo : Photo by Kon Karampelas on Unsplash)

Various online news sites recently report that the world's most utilized social media platform, Facebook, is soon to pay several news outlets for their content via a News Tab it recently launched. This latest innovation from FB has taken place following years of disapproval or reproach generally from the media industry. At an event that celebrated the News Tab's Launch, FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg was seen and heard striking a cheerful tone with media practitioners and Robert Thomson, News Corp CEO and a former critic of Facebook who interviewed with him on stage.

This News Tab initiative marks a significant shift "in the approach of Facebook to the media industry, which has long lamented the drop in advertising revenue" through tech upheaval that has eventually closed many publications. With the New Tab's launch, FB will start paying publications for their content through years of commitments. Incidentally, around 200 publishers, including News-Corp-owned Wall Street Journal and NCBC Universal, the parent company of the CNBC, have both already signed on.

Why Pay When Posts to Service Are For Free?

Many may have wondered why FB has chosen to pay for the content when it is being posted through its service for free. For years, Facebook has absorbed all the scolding from the media industry because of its role in driving away from the profit from their respective websites and apparently pumping up the video metrics that had contributed to the reshaping of the industry.

In connection to the criticisms Facebook faced before the News Tab was launched, Zuckerberg defended the controversial decision he made to cease from fact-checking advertisements which politicians make. More so, the CEO said he firmly believes maintaining political ads on FB is essential, although, "From a business perception, the controversy is not worth" the tiny part of the venture they are madeup. But it is also impossible to separate the new direction of Facebook on news content from the forceful scrutiny it is getting from both the press and the D.C. officials. Facebook refused to comment but pointed to its CEO's recent writings and statements on journalism and the News Tab in general.

News Tab, a Savvy Move

Zuckerberg's company has many reasons why it launched the News Tab. First of all, the News Corp CEO, Thomson, aligned himself in such a public manner with the FB CEO is in itself a win for the social media platform. News Corp, which recently called for Google and Facebook to pay media firms for their content, is now among the several businesses to be paid by Facebook for its content.

This tactic for FB may be categorized as something like "keep your enemies closer." This means creating goodwill with the media practitioners who are covering the company. But, maybe at least as essential, it may also mean to mollify the media trade teams that have petitioned against both Google and Facebook. Interestingly, the News Tab project itself and the stated dream structure surrounding it can be considered quite reasonably, a savvy move.