Facebook to pay Indian media outlets, among other countries, for their content
Facebook has found that over 95 per cent of the traffic Facebook News delivers to publishers "is incremental to the traffic they already get from News Feed".
In a bid to create a seamless experience, Facebook is reportedly testing a new feature which could potentially help news publishers and their subscriber to read paywalled articles without hitting the paywall or required to log in again.
The idea is that when Facebook identifies a subscriber from one of its publisher partners, that subscriber will be invited to link their news account to their Facebook account, reports TechCrunch.
Once they’re linked, if they encounter a paywalled article on Facebook, they’ll be able to read it without hitting the paywall or having to log in again.
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Facebook also says that when subscribers link their accounts, it will show them more content from that publisher, and that it’s “developing and [plans] to introduce additional subscriber experiences over time.”
According to the company, subscribers who linked their accounts made an average of 111 per cent more article clicks compared to those who weren’t part of the test group.
Those subscribers increased their rate of following a publisher from 34 per cent to 97 per cent.
When subscribers link their accounts with news publishers, it will show them more content.
Some newspapers like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Athletic and the Winnipeg Free Press in the US are testing the feature.
Calling itself a Fifth Estate, Facebook launched its revamped News tab in the US in June that includes a dedicated local news section among other topics, including breaking news alerts.
Facebook News will soon arrive in the UK, Germany, France, India and Brazil within the next six months to a year, and will pay news publishers to ensure their content is available in the new product.
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