Facebook to pay UK publishers ‘millions’ for content

Mariam Cheik-Hussein
By Mariam Cheik-Hussein | 2 December 2020

Facebook is launching its dedicated news tab in the UK with reports that it will pay publishers millions of dollars to feature their content.

Facebook News, a tab within the platform that showcases licensed content, will roll out in January next year in the UK. Facebook curates and personalises stories in Facebook News for users, selecting original and authoritative reporting.

So far, publishers including The Economist, The Mirror, The Guardian, Vogue, GQ and Harpers have signed a deal with Facebook for their content to feature in the tab.

The social media giant hasn’t revealed how much it will be paying the publishers, but there are reports that some publishers expect to make millions of pounds a year from their deal with Facebook, and others estimate it would cost Facebook tens of millions of dollars a year to run the scheme in the region.

“The UK launch in January will build on the success Facebook News has seen in the US, where we’ve found more than 95% of the traffic Facebook News delivers to publishers is new audiences that have not interacted with those news outlets in the past,” Facebook said in a statement.

Facebook is also planning on rolling out Facebook News in France and Germany.

The company was previously in talks with Australian publishers to launch Facebook News locally, however paused plans while the news media bargaining code is still being finalised.

Facebook has previously stated it would remove news content from the platform for Australian users if the draft code, which governs how Facebook and Google will pay news publishers for content, was legislated.

 

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