Facebook to launch News in India and pay local publishers for content

As part of this, Facebook will pay local news publishers to make their “content” available under ‘Facebook News’ — a product (and tab within Facebook) aimed at helping news media drive better monetisation.

Facebook News is a “personalised destination” for news within Facebook. It gives users controls to hide articles, publishers, and sections they’re not interested in for a better news experience. It also helps them discover new topics and stories based on their specific reading, sharing, and following patterns.

On the business side, Facebook News also delivers incremental traffic over what news owners get from Facebook’s News Feed. It is “built with publisher feedback and insights from people” and helps news publishers reach new audiences.
Campbell Brown, VP of Global News Partnerships, Facebook, wrote in a blogpost,

“Innovation is critical to building a sustainable news ecosystem. We will keep building new products and making global investments to help the news industry build long-lasting business models. Consumer habits and news inventory vary by country, so we’ll work closely with news partners in each country to tailor the experience and test ways to deliver a valuable experience for people while also honouring publishers’ business models.”

Besides India, the “international expansion” of Facebook News will also include countries like Brazil, Germany, France, and the UK. “We aim to launch Facebook News in multiple countries within the next six months to a year,” the company stated.
Additionally, the tech giant will continue to focus on increasing engagement of Facebook News in the US after a “strong start” in 2019.

Its partnerships in the US include top news publishers such as Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Buzzfeed News, Fox News, Business Insider, The Atlantic, and about 200 others.

“We’re committed to the partnerships we’ve developed with US publishers to make Facebook News a valuable asset over the long term,” Facebook added.