Facebook is developing a platform that allows publishers to introduce a paywall around their content on Facebook in a gesture towards helping them recoup revenue against content.
It is the latest move from Facebook to placate publishers and maintain their content on its platform, in response to increasing frustration from publishers about their commercial model being undermined by content being freely available on Facebook.
Facebook’s head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, revealed the subscription model was under way at the Digital Publishing Innovation Summit in New York on Tuesday, and it was first reported on The Street.
The Street quotes Campbell saying: "One of the things we heard in our initial meetings from many newspapers and digital publishers is that 'we want a subscription product - we want to be able to see a paywall in Facebook. And that is something we're doing now. We are launching a subscription product."
The subscription model will roll out in the UK and US in October.
Because all publishers operate on slightly different subscription models on their own platforms, creating a Facebook platform that is ubiquitous is difficult. Facebook is working with a number of publishers in the US and UK, including News Corp. AdNews understands Facebook is a long way from making similar deals on a local level, but it is expected to roll out to the Australian market down the track.
It will allow publishers to put up a paywall around content on Instant Articles, and push users towards a digital paid subscription. The model is thought to allow publishers to give access to a certain number of free articles a month before a paywall would come into effect.
Since Instant Articles was introduced in 2016 publishers have been disappointed with its performance in terms of revenue. A number of local and global publishers have also begun pulling back from Instant Articles this year, including Fairfax and The Guardian.
Instant Articles is a fast-loading, mobile-first format, designed to help publishers make content more mobile friendly, and increase their ability to serve ads and monetise their content within Facebook. Facebook takes a 30% slice of any ad revenue and it also means audiences are kept within the Facebook platform, which erodes audiences on publishers’ platforms. This has been a major concern for publishers.
There is currently a senate review into the future of journalism, which last week heard evidence from industry experts on how the funding model has shifted and how Google and Facebook's dominance in digital is putting media, publishers and Australian democracy at risk.
National Labor MP Sam Dastyari also warned recently that journalism is at a “do or die” point. Unless a new solution to funding is found, journalism could die in Australia, he warned.
Many publishers view Facebook as a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don't’ situation.
Many now rely on the eyeballs and audience their content receives through social channels, but are unable to monetise those audiences. It puts significant pressure on the funding model, and makes it increasingly difficult for publishers to fund journalism and content creation.
In May this year, Facebook told AdNews more than 9000 publishers use it globally, and it had grown 27% in the year to date. It hinted that it was working on ways to improve the monetisation for publishers.
"We are fully committed to Instant Articles and that means making sure the ecosystem is delivering value to publishers. We are encouraged by the improvements to monetisation over the last 6-12 months, but we know there is still work to be done," a spokesperson said.
"Our job is to prove the value proposition for Instant Articles to our partners (not just readers). If partners find they're getting less value from Instant Articles than their own website, they shouldn't use it until we've been able to flip that equation."
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