Facebook (FB) says it has the best interests of news publishers in mind. And toward that end, Campbell Brown, a former broadcast news correspondent hired by Facebook six months ago to heads up its news partnerships, teased a subscription-based news product that the world's largest social-media platform plans to launch later this year.
David Chavern, president and chief executive of the News Media Alliance, which represents 2,000 newspapers and digital publishers in the U.S. and Canada, says the idea of a product that might drive digital subscriptions would be warmly welcomed, though he said Facebook has yet to unveil details about the product.
"It's too soon to tell," Chavern said in a phone interview from Washington. "There's been a longterm request that Facebook have better integration with the publishers' subscription models. We're hopeful. I would love for it to be a great product that was really great for publishers but we don't know yet."
The News Media Alliance has begun talks with federal legislators about securing an anti-trust exemption to allow publishers to collectively negotiate content deals with platforms, most prominently, Facebook and Alphabet's Google (GOOGL) . Chavern argues that the very business model that sustains legacy newspapers is at risk for the simple reason that Facebook and Google currently control about two-thirds of all digital advertising.
And digital advertising is fast becoming the largest category of ad spending, surpassing television.
Securing such an exemption from Congress is a long shot, but one that the publishers' group is willing to explore as it seeks to reverse more than a decade of declining advertising and circulation sales. Weekday circulation for U.S. daily newspapers -- both print and digital -- fell 8% in 2016, the 28th consecutive year of declines, the Pew Research Center reported last month. Sunday circulation also fell 8%.
Source: thestreet.com
No comments:
Post a Comment