Sobre Facebook News

Van dos enlaces a sendos artículos sobre Facebook News. El primero apareció en la sección de opinión del New York Times y lleva la firma del mismísimo Mark Zuckerberg. El segundo es de Michael Núñez en Forbes.

Facebook News estará disponible inicialmente solo para los móviles de unas 200.000 personas en grandes ciudades de los Estados Unidos: Nueva York, Los Ángeles, Chicago, Dallas, Filadelfia, Houston, Washington, Miami, Atlanta y Boston.

Copio algunos datos por si Forbes no los deja entrar:

Facebook will reportedly pay for at least some of the content included in the tab. Representatives from Facebook told news executives they would pay as much as $3 million to license headlines and previews of articles from major news outlets, according to a Wall Street Journal report. 

Facebook has hired a team of journalists to help curate major national stories that will populate the Today’s Stories, one of four sections in the tab. The company says the team will have full editorial independence and has published publicly available guidelines that the curators will abide by. 

It’s a second-try at using journalists to curate the news. Facebook faced a torrent of criticism during the 2016 presidential election for perceived liberal bias in its Trending News section. The company discontinued its Trending News section in June of last year. 

Other sections of the tab will be governed by Facebook’s algorithm to personalize the news. It will also include topics of interest (such as business, entertainment, and sports) and stories from paid news subscriptions.

Y de paso le robo al New York Times palabras de Zuckerberg:

This model establishes a long-term financial partnership between publishers and Facebook for the first time. We know that we need to help build a stable model. Unlike other things we’ve tried in the past, this is a multiyear commitment that should give publishers the confidence to plan ahead. We now have multiyear partnerships with ABC News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, The Dallas Morning News and many more publishers. 

This also establishes a new product on Facebook for people who want a dedicated high-quality news experience. This will start small, but I’m optimistic that if we listen carefully to the ideas and concerns of news organizations all over the world, we can grow this over time. 

Supporting quality news can also help us fight misinformation. That’s why we’re setting strict standards for publishers to be eligible to appear in Facebook News. If a publisher posts misinformation, it will no longer appear in the product. 

I believe deeply in the social good that journalism provides. Today, it’s more important than ever: We need the news to scrutinize the powerful, reliably document major events and uncover new truths. This makes our society better, and I know from firsthand experience it has made our company better too — even when it’s uncomfortable. I hope our efforts will honor the important work that journalists do and support the news industry that keeps us all informed.