Facebook launched Bulletin in June as a standalone
newsletter subscription service with free and paid articles and podcasts. It is
the social media giant’s attempt to compete in the booming email newsletter
trend led by companies like Substack.
Facebook has previously announced about 40 writers on
Bulletin and says there will be more than 100 on the platform “by the fall.” A
spokeswoman declined to say how many subscribers Bulletin has at present.
The company, which announced in April that its local news
investment for Bulletin would prioritize reporters working in news deserts and
covering communities of color, said the selected writers include those covering
immigrant communities in Atlanta, climate issues in North Carolina’s Coastal
Plain and insights from Latino business leaders in Florida.
The Facebook spokeswoman said Bulletin’s new local writers,
who report on areas in more than a dozen U.S. states, include some of the first
to monetize their Bulletin content through pay walls. She said the writers
would keep all of their subscription revenue from these partnerships.
High-profile reporters and writers have left major media
companies in the last year to publish their work on sites like Substack and
Medium, which have thousands of content creators and paying subscribers.
Twitter Inc, which like Facebook has been rolling out new
features for creators to build audiences and make money on its social media
site, acquired newsletter platform Revue in January. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on
Thursday announced the start of a test where users can click to subscribe to
Revue newsletters directly from people’s Twitter profiles.
The local journalists for Bulletin were chosen in an
application process in which Facebook partnered with the International Center
for Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Facebook said
the writers will have access to an intensive course for journalists aiming to
build a sustainable independent business.
The world’s largest social network has long had a strained
relationship with the news industry. The company says it has invested hundreds
of millions of dollars in the sector in recent years, though critics argue
these contributions hardly compensate for the revenue lost by publishers as big
tech companies gobbled up the digital ad market.
In February, following a showdown with the Australian
government over paying news outlets for content, Facebook pledged to invest $1
billion in the news industry globally over the next three years. -Reuters
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