Facebook News launches in the UK and has been declared as ‘Facebook’s first market outside the US.’ Facebook has said that to curate the stories that appear on news, the app will work with Upday- a service that runs news on its phones and is a joint collaboration of German publisher Axel Springer and Samsung.
Last year, in an earlier list, The Guardian, The Economist, The Independent, STV and an estimated number of hundreds of local news sites from Archant, JPI Media, lliffe, Midlands News Association, Reach, and also lifestyle titles like GQ, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Glamour were announced.
What will Facebook News Provide?
Just like the US version of Facebook news, it can be accessed through a tab in the iOS or Android menu.
A list of curated top stories, and a list of personalized stories from the pages the user follows will be posted regularly on the Facebook News portal. The news of the user’s interest like sports, health, entertainment, science and technology, will also be posted on a regular basis. However, it is the user’s choice to show or hide their ‘liked’ stories.
It has been said that a lot of people have used the News Feed portal on Facebook as well as on other social platforms, but Facebook News has aimed to take a step ahead by providing a curated page for links and headlines from different publications so that readers are able to know about the current news immediately.
A spokesperson said that Facebook has not yet informed about the number of users or their engagement Facebook’s US version has picked up.
With Facebook News, Facebook said that its has aimed to provide users with a more balanced and committed mix of news beyond what they might find in their news feed, while still adapting it to the interest of the users.
It was mentioned that the financial deal between Facebook and Upday has not yet been cleared. However, Facebook’s licensing deals have been cutting tens of millions of pounds for publishers to collectively put their content in news, with the main publishers making millions of pounds per year out of their agreements. Although these figures may pale to what Facebook makes worldwide in ad sales, which approaches tens of billions per quarter, they reflect substantial amounts for the beleaguered UK Media industry.
On Tuesday, it was informed through a blog post by Jesper Doub – Facebook’s director of news partnership in Europe, that Germany and France have been listed to be the next countries to access Facebook News. Although, the launch date has not yet been confirmed.
I’m Ava Paul, an experienced news website author with a special focus on the entertainment section. Over the past five years, I have worked in various positions of media and communication at World Stock Market. My experience has given me extensive knowledge in writing, editing, researching and reporting on stories related to the entertainment industry.
