Facebook’s Talks To Host Publishers’ Content Are Heating Up

Facebook’s efforts to host news publishers content are apparently picking up momentum.

A report Monday in the New York Times, citing anonymous sources, laid out more details of discussions Facebook has been having with “at least half a dozen media companies” to publish content directly on Facebook.

From the story:

Facebook intends to begin testing the new format in the next several months, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. The initial partners are expected to be The New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic, although others may be added since discussions are continuing. The Times and Facebook are moving closer to a firm deal, one person said.

To make the proposal more appealing to publishers, Facebook has discussed ways for publishers to make money from advertising that would run alongside the content.

Revenue-sharing plans are still being negotiated, according to the story, but one possibility would “allow publishers to show a single ad in a custom format within each Facebook article.”

News publishers have long coveted the Facebook audience, which now is up to 1.4 billion monthly active users. Those users read a lot of news and many news sites are now getting upwards of 40% of their referral traffic from Facebook. Facebook believes that it can provide a better news reading experience on Facebook rather than the traditional linking out to news sites, especially on mobile devices.

The Catch-22 for publishers: is reaching the huge Facebook audience worth giving up advertising dollars and the data gleaned from people visiting their sites?

Read the full story at the New York Times.

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