Following an Axios article, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced on Thursday that it will stop paying US publishers to have their content appear on Facebook’s News page.
In 2019, Meta introduced Facebook News while the parent business still used the same name for its leading social media platform and before it reported its first-ever user decline, which occurred in February.
Back then, and indeed today, many publishing companies are dissatisfied with Facebook and Google’s digital ad duopoly, which for years has controlled more than 60% of the US market.
In order to pay media companies for having their material promoted on the social network, news feed partnerships were forged.
Priorities Have Now Altered
The so-called creator economy, which refers to the realm of a highly shareable and viral video that rules on TikTok and, increasingly, Meta’s own Instagram and Reels, was the subject of a Wall Street Journal investigation this month based on an internal company document.
The haste to overhaul is due to Meta’s announcement on Thursday that its quarterly revenue had dropped for the first time ever, falling by almost 1% to $28.8 billion in the three months ending in June.
According to people who spoke with Axios and the WSJ, Facebook’s move has an influence on agreements worth $100 million with news publishers.
According to Axios, which reported that relationships with 50 publishers will not be extended, among Meta’s partnerships, the company spent $10 million on one with WSJ, $3 million on one with CNN, and $20 million on one with the New York Times.
Of course, US publications can continue to publish for free to the news tab.
As of now, deals in other nations will continue, such as those in France, Germany, the UK, and Australia, where Meta capitulated last year after purposefully obstructing news content in opposition to a new law requiring Google and Facebook to pay for news content on their platforms.
Featured Image: Megapixl @Kianlin
