Facebook could launch a new "high quality" news section by the end of 2019



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According to Zuckerberg, the new section would inspire Facebook's "Watch" tab, a section of the platform that hosts video and original programming. It would be separate from the news feed that would remain unchanged, which means that users could still share and find news there.

"Because it started to grow very quickly and many videos are now used by our services, we decided that it was really possible to do the same with the news," Zuckerberg explained during the discussion. . with Mathias Döpfner, managing director of the new publisher Axel Springer.

Zuckerberg said that he envisioned the news destination as a place that "10, 15, maybe 20%" of Facebook users would use, giving the company "the opportunity to dramatically increase" the broadcast high-end journalism. He described it as a place both personalized and organized.

"So, of course, everything we do is going to be personalized," said Zuckerberg. "But there is a question I have, that is, what is the good level of curation we should have for – we will not let reporters do any news – but I think what we want to do is to make sure that this is a product that can bring people news of high quality, no? "

While Zuckerberg may not have considered hiring journalists to produce original work for Facebook, the person familiar with the internal conversations said discussions were underway about whether to hire a small team of journalists for manage the information in the new section.

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In constructing this new feature, Zuckerberg outlined three principles with which he said he wanted to stay. First of all, he wants to build the product in a "consultative" way, allowing the "experts of the field" to give their opinion. Secondly, he wants to improve the monetization of publishers from News Feed. Finally, he wants to create an "online ecosystem" in which "new types of journalism can flourish".

The possibility of increased monetization is likely to hold the attention of publishers. Zuckerberg said that Facebook "should think about" the possibility of paying license fees to publishers, an idea launched by information managers.

"I think it makes sense and there are a lot of details to sort out, but I'm optimistic about making it more sustainable," Zuckerberg said.

That said, some publishers will probably be skeptical about Zuckerberg's projects, given Facebook's difficult relationship with media organizations. Some information industry leaders said Facebook had undermined their business models, while others have even blamed society's changing strategies for making them go away.

Zuckerberg's announcement comes after Apple's major incursion into the news, with the launch of a subscription service last week.

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