Facebook News Stand-Alone Tab Rolls Out in UK

Facebook began rolling out its stand-alone Facebook News tab in the U.K. Tuesday, after saying late last November that it would do so in early 2021. Director of news partnerships for Europe Jesper Doub said in a blog post last November that Facebook News would debut in the U.K. with publisher partners including Archant, Condé Nast, The Economist, ESI Media, Guardian Media Group, Hearst, Iliffe, JPI Media, Midland News Association, Reach and STV, and Doub updated that list in a blog post Tuesday, adding Channel 4 News, Daily Mail Group, DC Thomson, Financial Times, Sky News and Telegraph Media Group to the list. Facebook News will bring people using the social network’s flagship mobile applications the day’s top headlines and stories, along with news personalized to match their interests. The tab will also provide news digests containing original and authoritative reporting during major news cycles, such as a current collection of content related to Covid-19. Users will have access to controls over the types of stories they see in Facebook News, and they can explore news by topic and news outlet. News articles shared by people and pages will continue to appear in News Feed. The social network summarized the key features of Facebook News: The top stories of the day, chosen by a team of journalists to catch up on the latest news as it breaks throughout the day.Personalization based on the news users read, share and follow, so that they can find new interests and topics from their favorite news outlets or publications they hadn’t previously followed, creating a fresh and interesting experience every time.Sections enabling readers to dive deeper into business, entertainment, health, science and technology and sports.Controls to make sure people see the articles, topics or publishers they want to see and hide those they don’t wish to see. Facebook confirmed that it is teaming up with independent third-party service Upday on the curation of Facebook News. Spokesperson John Nolan said in an email that Upday’s team of editors will help curate the day’s most relevant stories, overseen by Facebook’s curation team and following its guidelines, adding that Upday is a trusted partner of the social network, with the two parties having worked together on the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Information Center and the Climate Science hub in the U.K. Upday is a strategic partnership between German publisher Axel Springer and Samsung, and it curates news into two sections: Top News, in which its editorial teams determine the most important stories of the day; and My News, where users see content based on topics they select, curated by the editorial team and via algorithm. Facebook would not comment on the financial terms of its arrangement with Upday. The social network initially introduced Facebook News in October 2019 as a stand-alone tab in its app designed to feature the work of roughly 200 news outlets. It became available throughout the U.S. last June as a bookmark in the Facebook app, with the social network saying at the time that its Today In local news discovery experience would be folded into Facebook News. And last August, Facebook revealed plans to extend Facebook News to multiple countries, potentially starting with Brazil, France, Germany, India and the U.K. Doub wrote in his blog post Tuesday, “Facebook News was built to bring people closer to the stories that impact their lives and the community around them. Our aim is to build on our efforts to sustain great national and local journalism and create more value for publishers. We’ll continue to learn, listen and improve Facebook News as it rolls out across the U.K. and into other markets, including France and Germany, where we are in active negotiations with partners. In order to bring Facebook News and other news products that help publishers transition in the digital age to more countries, it is critical that regulatory environments invite this kind of investment and innovation.”

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Facebook News Stand-Alone Tab Rolls Out in UK

The social network is in talks to extend it to France, Germany

David Cohen

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