‘We’re losing hope’: Facebook tells publishers big change is coming to News Feed
‘We’re losing hope’: Facebook tells publishers big change
is coming to News Feed
JANUARY 11, 2018 by Lucia Moses
The end is nigh. Facebook is planning a major change to
its news feed, starting as early as next week, that will decisively favor user
content and effectively deprioritize publishers’ content, according to three
publishers that have been briefed by the platform ahead of the move.
Those who have been briefed say that under the new test,
Facebook told them it will favor content that’s shared by users or otherwise
actively engaged with. The thinking goes, according to those briefed, that
Facebook believes prioritizing content that’s acted on will reduce the
occurrence of fake and offensive content in the news feed.
Publishers still have many questions about the impending
news feed change. Facebook told them that content from reputable publishers
will also be surfaced. It didn’t specify how it would define “reputable
publisher” or how their traffic would be impacted, though. The worry for
publishers is that such an approach will have the unintended consequence of
hurting high-quality content because a lot of legitimate news articles, while
they may get read, tend not to get shared or commented on.
A Facebook rep wouldn’t confirm (or deny) these changes
on the record but later addressed the plans in a blog post and to The New York
Times.
Facebook has been taking steps in this direction for some
time, making tweaks to amplify users’ content while weeding out spam and clickbait.
Publishers who have been briefed by Facebook believe this latest move would
cause a more dramatic decline in publishers’ ability to reach audiences in the
news feed, though. Although Facebook isn’t the referral source it once was for
publishers, it remains a major source of referral traffic for them, only
recently surpassed by Google. Facebook hasn’t confirmed or denied the new
reports. We’ll update this story when they do.
“They’re breaking the bad news one by one,” said one
person who was briefed by Facebook on the changes, adding that along with the
user content change, Facebook also was prioritizing its scripted Watch shows,
its major video initiative, as it tries to grab TV ad dollars. “My impression
is they’re going to move away from what we think of as Facebook videos.”
As Facebook sends them less traffic, publishers have been
diversifying away from Facebook and fishing for traffic on other platforms such
as Google, Apple News and Twitter. Another downgrade in the news feed is likely
to accelerate publishers’ shift in resources away from Facebook. Even some of
Facebook’s strongest publisher boosters express mounting frustration. “We’re
losing hope,” said one.
Last year, Facebook tested a newsless news feed called
the Explore Feed in six countries outside the U.S., causing publishers to freak
out and spurring speculation that Facebook would replicate that approach in the
U.S., despite Facebook saying it didn’t expect to roll out the test further.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg has publicly acknowledged problems wrought by
technology, including misuse and abuse of the platform, which has amplified the
spread of hate-filled content and misinformation and has been used to attempt
to influence voters in the presidential election. Facebook has made a number of
moves to stamp out fake news, but their results have been mixed.
Another big downgrade in the news feed won’t necessarily
come as a shock to publishers, but it conflicts sharply with Facebook’s public
stance about how it’s trying to help publishers. That was the stated aim of the
year-old Facebook Journalism Project, which Facebook launched to much fanfare
about helping support publishers’ business models.
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