Reports that that Facebook is building a tool to help users subscribe to news publications have been met with scepticism.
Michael MaLoon of US-Based News Media Alliance says a report in the Wall Street Journal this week of a tool directly within the mobile app was "happy news" after recent reports of Safari and Google's Chrome entering the ad-blocking game.
The new feature is expected at the end of 2017. Little is known about the product so far. Poynter pointed out this new feature was similar to Apple News, allowing publishers to sell subscriptions in app.
"Overall, this sounds like an encouraging move by Facebook, but by now we've learned to take their overtures about helping the news industry with a grain of salt," says MaLoon. "According to initial reports, this new feature will only be available on content posted through Instant Articles. Other discussions have mentioned a metered, micro-payment model. We're interested to see what develops and how altruistic the feature is.
Currently Facebook reaps 90 per cent of its revenue from advertising. Between Facebook and Google, they are expected to receive more than 60 per cent of digital ad spend this year, according to eMarketer. This makes subscriptions vital to maintaining quality news.
"Having Facebook encourage people pay for news would be groundbreaking and I hope that's exactly what happens, but in the meantime, count me as sceptical," says MaLoon.
In a Poynter report, University of California, Berkeley journalism teacher and industry analyst Alan Mutter described the development as "like a chicken soup thing".
"It couldn't hurt, but it's not going to be a transformational business model for publishers to sell subscriptions through Facebook." He said only a small number of people in the English-speaking world were now willing to pay to acquire news.
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