Several news publishers will subtly lose millions of dollars as Meta says that dedicated news systems have no place on its more algorithmically oriented social platforms.
According to Axios, citing unidentified sources within Facebook, the firm is officially withdrawing from its relationships with big news companies. A spokeswoman for Meta, Facebook’s parent corporation, later officially confirmed the news.
“A lot has changed since we inked arrangements three years ago to try bringing additional news links to Facebook News in the United States,” a spokeswoman told Gizmodo in an email. “Most people don’t come to Facebook for news, and it doesn’t make sense for a corporation to overinvest in areas that don’t line with user preferences.”
Facebook paid news companies such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal to have their material appear on the Facebook News tab. According to prior estimates, the deals were worth more than $100 million in total, with the Times receiving more than $20 million, the Post $15 million, and the Journal $10 million. According to alleged internal sources, Axios also reported that Facebook was paying news providers $90 million for news videos.
Those who were paying attention saw this move coming. Meta’s executives despise the concept of having to pay for posts that connect to other sites. Unnamed Facebook sources previously informed Journal reporters that the company will let those contracts expire as it refocused its business model on the hazy concept of the “metaverse.” Not to mention making adjustments that make Facebook and Instagram appear very TikTok-like. That implies that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company don’t need the primary material of news publishers because the new model prioritizes algorithm-based feeds over viewing updates from those individuals who follow them.
