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Q1 2018 | DIGITAL

Is Facebook breaking up with news?

Facebook will show you fewer posts from brands and publishers, and more baby photos by Garett Sloane

introduced as a salve for slow webpages outside
the social network.
Now, it seems those publishers are almost as
out of luck as the phony publishers Facebook has
tried to scrub from the News Feed.
Some publishers say they were out of the loop
on the changes that Facebook is making, despite
the social network’s efforts over the past year
to build stronger ties with industry. Last year, it
created the Facebook Journalism Project to meet
with media companies about how to best use the
social network and find ways for them to make
money for their efforts.
“This definitely gives you a sense of where
you stand in the ‘circle’,” says another publishing
executive, who was part of the Journalism Project
but was not apprised of the latest major changes.
For its part, Facebook has been seeing fewer
everyday users creating posts for friends and
family, while more brands and media companies
were populating the service. Meanwhile, rivals
like Snapchat were growing stronger, with users
shooting videos and sending messages to friends
obsessively.
ark Zuckerberg is upending the News Feed, On Facebook, users have developed a penchant
Mwhat people see on Facebook every day, in for zombie-like scrolling, quick to scan posts and
a way that will boost posts from friends, while then move on to the next one in milliseconds, and
downplaying messages from brands and media the update is meant to slow that scroll.
companies, even video posts. Facebook wants to help users improve their
The Facebook CEO announced the changes sense of well-being, Zuckerberg says.
on the social network on January 12, 2018, and it “The research shows that when we use social
sounded like a warning for publishers and media media to connect with people we care about, it can
partners that rely on the platform to reach audiences. be good for our well-being,” Zuckerberg says. “We
“We’ve gotten feedback from our commu- can feel more connected and less lonely, and that
nity that public content – posts from businesses, correlates with long term measures of happiness
brands and media – is crowding out the personal and health. On the other hand, passively reading
moments that lead us to connect more with each articles or watching videos – even if they’re en-
other,” Zuckerberg says in the Facebook post. tertaining or informative – may not be as good.”
The company has been signaling its shifting Facebook says it will still show content from
priorities for years, downgrading the presence of media pages, but it will prioritize the types of
low-quality posts and clickbait headlines, while posts that spark conversations among friends. For
encouraging more engagement from everyday instance, Oprah Winfrey giving a speech at the
users. In 2016, fake news infiltrated Facebook, Golden Globes is likely to still spread like wildfire,
and posts from foreign actors were blamed for but posts that don’t elicit many comments will
impacting the presidential election. likely be buried.
“I don’t think they’re shutting all publish- The change does not directly impact Watch,
ers down, but it sounds like this will take many the video hub Facebook created to compete with
by surprise,” says one publishing executive who YouTube. Facebook has worked with a number of
works closely with Facebook and who spoke on media companies on creating shows for Watch,
condition of anonymity. “They’ve been really and is trying to sell advertisers on buying com-
cloak and dagger about this update.” mericals there. In recent weeks, Facebook has
Meanwhile, media companies have been relying made changes to that program as well, and it
more than ever on Facebook to reach audiences also is prioritizing video shows that encourage
and drive traffic to their websites. Many publish- community engagement and generate positive
ers shifted their digital strategies to stay in good participation among loyal audiences.
favor with Facebook’s algorithm, moving into The changes come on the heels of Zuckerberg’s
live video when Facebook said it wanted more New Year post in which he promised to work to
of that content and experimenting with Instant improve the social network and fix many of its
Articles when those fast-loading articles were nagging problems.

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