In an article by Mathew Ingram, he writes about the upcoming changes to Facebook and some of the reasons Mark Zuckerberg gives for doing this. Meta has decided to drop the “news feed” from Facebook, which was the main page and allowed users to see their friends were up to. They have decided to drop this term because Meta is looking to “de-emphasize its investment on news content.” This isn’t the first time Facebook’s news methods have failed. In 2016, they made a shift towards video news believing it was the future for publishers, however they got lower engagement than predicted.
Since Facebook News was launched in 2019, Meta has been paying $90 million every year to certain publications such the Washington Post and New York Times. In total, they featured news from over 200 different outlets. Facebook hasn’t received the return on investment they were looking for when trying out their new feature, so the focus of the app has shifted. Facebook wants to connect the community, as Zuckerberg has been told the news posts are “crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”
I actually like the approach Facebook is taking, because multiple times their attempt to use the platform as a news outlet failed. Bringing the app back towards the emphasis on people, and as an outlet of communication bringing friends closer together is a smart decision in my opinion. The title of the article, “Will Facebook changes leave news media out in the cold?” is partially true, but not for all media outlets. Publications such as the New York Times won’t suffer any major hits if Facebook doesn’t display their content as much on the app. However, some of the smaller outlets got their brand out to the public through Facebook, so the situation is different. These outlets received money from Meta, as well as recognition, and since they don’t have the same popularity as New York Times they will get hit harder by this change.