Facebook is building a feature that would allow users to
subscribe to news publications directly from the mobile app, and the new
feature is expected to roll out by the end of 2017. The terms of the partnership have not been finalized
but there have been some discussions about making the feature available only on
stories published natively to Facebook through its Instant Articles product, a
metered-payment model, which would allow users to read some articles for free
each month before prompting them to pay, and Facebook potential (or lack of)
revenues
Currently, publishers are emphasizing digital subscriptions
to power revenue growth. The new feature
would provide another avenue to potentially get paid for its content (vs. giving
away content for free in Instant Articles).
The new features seems like it is trying to compete with Google’s “First
Click Free” program, which allows Google visitors to bypass paywalls but
asks them to subscribe to the related publisher after a certain number of free
articles have been read by the users. However, I
believe Facebook is more powerful than Google’s program for publishers as the
news articles will be in the users’ Facebook newsfeed vs. having to search for
news in Google.
The new feature’s success will be determined by the participation
of the news publishers. New York Times
and the Washington Post have more lenient paywalls but publishers such as the
Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times have stricter paywalls. However, this new feature can provide smaller
publishers with a bigger audience, more recognition and potential revenues for
their content that individuals would not normally pay for.
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