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Facebook program aims to boost local news subscriptions
Just because Facebook is downplaying publishers in your News Feed doesn't mean it's uninterested in giving media outlets a helping hand. The social network's Journalism Project is launching a Local News Subscriptions Accelerator that will help "metro newspapers" grow their reader bases. The $3 million, 3-month pilot will have 10 to 15 publishers participate in weekly training and once-a-month meetings to improve their digital subscription marketing both on and off of Facebook, including the creation of tailor-made projects with funding.
Facebook’s news subscription service will debut on Android, not iOS
Back in June, we learned that Facebook was working on a subscription deal with The Wall Street Journal. Then in July, more news pointed to the social platform launching a news subscription service which would layer a paywall above Instant Articles. Now, Facebook has revealed that it is, in fact, in testing mode for subscriptions for Instant Articles.
Facebook's Instant Articles will no longer appear in Messenger
Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is working on a paid-content model with partner publishers, the company has made further tweaks to the way users can view external articles. According to TechCrunch, Instant Articles will no longer appear in Messenger. The faster-loading article format, hosted by Facebook itself, arrived in Messenger last July and was denoted by a lightning bolt icon on the top right corner of some links shared within the platform. This content would load up to 10 times faster than a standard mobile web article.
Nielsen ratings give credit for Facebook, YouTube and Hulu views
Media ratings giant Nielsen announced today that publishers will now get credit for digital video content aired on Facebook, Hulu and YouTube. "Through capturing this audience, Nielsen is providing publishers, agencies and advertisers with a better picture of today's media consumption, with comparable metrics," said Nielsen's president of product leadership, Megan Clarken, in a statement.
Facebook will allow news subscriptions on Instant Articles
In the face of mounting pressure from publishers, Facebook is launching a news subscription service. The new feature will essentially allow news outlets to erect a paywall on top of Instant Articles. That way Facebook keeps readers locked to its site, while media companies earn a bit more cash from their content. The social network will begin testing the service in October, according to its head of news partnerships Campbell Brown.
Facebook and WSJ owners are working on a 'subscription' deal
The publisher of Wall Street Journal is in advanced talks to bring articles to Facebook through a subscription model. News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said that he'd been talking with Mark Zuckerberg about how "the value of content should be recognised". Thomson said in an interview at a media industry conference on this week in Italy, that News Corp was "in the middle of negotiations with Facebook on a subscription mechanic."
Get ready for more ads in Facebook's Instant Articles
As part of its Journalism Project, Facebook has revealed that it will allow publishers to place more ads in Instant Articles. That will allow sites like the Washington Post and New York Times to eke a bit more money out of posts published directly onto the social network. Instant Articles are good for Facebook, because users stay on the site since they don't need to click on a link. However, they're not great for publishers, because you can't see native ads, discover more articles or check out new videos -- all of which help sites keep their doors open.
Facebook finds more exaggerated ad data
After Facebook realized that it had been overstating video views for years, it conducted an internal review to search for more flaws messing with its ad data... and it's not happy with what it found. The social network reports that it found multiple problems with how it calculated or represented the info that marketers thrive on. It wasn't always counting end-to-end video playback properly, for example, since clip lengths would occasionally change when you started streaming. Facebook also over-reported how long people spent reading Instant Articles, and included more clicks and views than it should in some dashboards.
Facebook's Instant Articles are heading to its Messenger app
Facebook's fast-loading news stories have been around for a while now, but soon they'll make their way to the company's standalone chat app. Instant Articles will son be available inside Messenger. When someone shares a link with you, a lightning bolt icon will let you know that it's available as one of the quick-to-load stories. This means you won't have to wait for it to appear like a regular ol' web article. There are ads inside the Instant Articles and those will make the trip over to Messenger as well.
LinkedIn reportedly looking to rival Facebook's Instant Articles
LinkedIn is said to be considering an Instant Articles feature of its own, BuzzFeed News reports. According to the publication, which cites sources familiar with the matter, LinkedIn recently started floating this idea to "various" publishers, inspired by what Facebook is doing in the space. For the unaware, Instant Articles are links to stories that you can read within Facebook's app, elimitating the need to visit a third-party site -- such as The New York Times, BuzzFeed and other news outlets.
Facebook ranks articles based on how long you read them
The Instant Articles and other content in your Facebook News Feed aren't picked by magic. The company scrutinizes what kind of stories you want to read based on your clicks, shares or comments, then serves up more of the same. The social network already analyzes how long you spend reading stories while you're still in the app. Now, it will also measure how long you spend on an article after you click away from the News Feed, without counting the load times.
Facebook's Instant Articles now support video ads
From a user's perspective, Facebook Instant Articles are a no-brainer. Just tap the relevant link in your News Feed and the piece is visible immediately. Brilliant. For publishers, however, the feature is a little more complicated. There's a trade-off between performance and control which not all news rooms are comfortable with. To tempt them across, Facebook is introducing video ads to Instant Articles. It's a move to show that the format can be as flexible and, more importantly, as monetizable as the rest of the web. Animated ads and "click to play" videos will be supported immediately, followed by autoplay video ads in the coming weeks.
WordPress blogs will soon support Facebook's Instant Articles
If you turn to Facebook for your daily news update, you may have come across Instant Articles. A small number of publishers are able to serve up news articles quickly for mobile devices right now, but from April 12th, the technology will be open to anyone --- including bloggers. In a bid to get communities on board, Facebook has teamed up with Automattic, the company behind the popular publishing software WordPress, to make it easy for writers all over the world to serve pages up to 10 times faster than they could before.
Facebook's Instant Articles will draw from more news outlets
Facebook first announced its so-called Instant Articles last May, serving up news articles quickly for mobile consumption. However, the list of publishers was super limited, but that's about to change. Starting in April, the social network will open up its Instant Articles platform to any publisher interested in taking advantage. If you'll recall, the tool lets you peruse a full article's contents without leaving the Facebook app, nixing the need to hop over to a web browser to do your reading.
Facebook's Instant Articles arrive on Android
You no longer need an iPhone to read Facebook's Instant Articles on the move. As of today, anyone in the world with an Android phone (and the Facebook app, of course) can read those quick-to-load stories. The experience will be very familiar if you've tried it before, but it promises to bring Instant Articles to a considerably wider audience -- particularly in developing countries where low-cost phones and slow internet access are still par for the course.
Facebook's Instant Articles come to Latin America
Facebook's Instant Articles haven't been available in many parts of the world so far, but that's improving today. The social network's speedier, simpler reading feature has launched on iOS devices in Latin America, initially pulling in content from 40 sites across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. You'll have to wait until sometime in the "coming weeks" to catch up on news from your Android phone, but there's now at least one way to keep up with Interactive Sport and Telemundo while you're scanning your Facebook feed.
WSJ: Facebook's Instant Articles aren't bringing in a lot of money
The 20 participating publishers of Facebook's Instant Articles program just aren't getting as much money per post as they do for pieces posted on their own websites. As a result, the social network is now testing new advertising schemes, according to The Wall Street Journal. At the moment, each Instant Article can only have one 320 x 250 pixel-banner per 500 words of content, whereas a publication's website would usually have three to four. Plus, the initiative doesn't allow animated ads. The project's manager, Michael Reckhow, told the WSJ that since receiving feedback from the publishers, Facebook has been experimenting by adding more banners to random pages, even animated and interactive ones.
Facebook reportedly launching a standalone news app next week
According to Financial Times, Facebook will be releasing yet another standalone app. The yet-to-be-released Notify app will feature news from media partners like The Washington Post, CBS and Vogue. Users will receive alerts when one of the outlets publishes an article and it becomes available within the app. Unlike Instant Articles -- which embed articles within the main Facebook app -- Notify will be a one-trick pony. Both the app and in-app features are meant to reduce the load time of stories and give the social network the opportunity to become the go-to destination for news from multiple sources. If the app does emerge from the company next week, it'll join a growing number of single-use apps the company has released over the years including, Messenger, Poke, Camera, Rooms, Slingshot, Groups and Pages. [Image credit: Shutterstock]
Facebook's Instant Articles comes to all iPhones
In a blog post and at WSJD Live, Facebook has just announced that Instant Articles will now be available for all iPhone owners, with an Android beta rolling out starting today. That means that even more people will be able to read Instant Artlcles -- full news stories directly from the publisher -- right in their Newsfeed. An Instant Article link will have a lightning bolt icon at the top right corner. Facebook's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said on stage that you'll start to see thousands of Instant Articles everyday.
Recommended Reading: The making of a self-driving semitruck
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. How Daimler Built the World's First Self-driving Semi by Alex Davies Wired In case you missed it, Daimler built a self-driving big rig, and it just recently got the OK to hit the road in Nevada. The Freightliner truck, known as Inspiration, took a team of around 60 engineers six months to build. Wired's Alex Davies offers a behind-the-scenes look at the project, detailing some of the tech that's onboard.
