Could Facebook be the next big news publisher?

Posted by Jennifer Lush on October 13, 2009 at 1:40 PM

Ben LaMothe writing for Econsultancy, has suggested that Facebook has all the tools necessary to turn the social networking site into the next big news publisher. "All that's stopping Facebook from becoming the pre-eminent news publisher for its 300m users is Zuckerberg's desire to do it," he writes.

After turning a profit a year earlier than anticipated, LaMothe argues that it is not unrealistic to think that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg might consider investing in news production, despite the questionable profitability of the industry. Refering to an interview Zuckerberg gave with The Wall Street Journal in 2007, LaMothe says that he "alluded to a new stage to transform Facebook from simply a social media site into a diverse platform. He said that in future iterations, users would see "real stories being produced" on their Facebook feeds."

Given that the majority of Facebook's users are young (18-34) and recent studies have found this age group to be more prone to seeking their news online or via devices- it makes sense that something like a social networking site might be considered a potential platform for news. As LaMothe suggests, in some ways it already is: "By 'friending' someone, you acknowledge shared interests and perspectives. When a friend posts a link to a news article, video or other media, you're likely to click on it because of the inherent trust of having 'friended' them."

LaMothe also rasies the point of the lack of motivation young people have to seek out news, saying that "the reality of it is people expect news to find them." Such a marriage between the social and the serious could be a way to boost interest in the news amongst young people.

But what turn would journalism take if this were to expand into a fully fledged news service? And how might Facebook go about it?

As to how to go about it, LaMothe proposes a model similar to that taken by the non-profit Bay Area News Project, where unpaid journalism students do the legwork and a small team of professional journalists check everything is square before anything is published. This might work for a small community publication that compliments larger news sources, but for Facebook, a network that services over 300 million people this seems less practical.

Perhaps then, it might work as a news agregator, following in the footsteps of publications such as the Huffington Post, collecting headlines and linking to other articles and websites. This, unless some sort of deal is established with publishers, would mean that Facebook would have to pay nothing, or very little, for the actual content produced, only adding to the financial woes of publishers worldwide.

It might consider outright buying a newspaper, as Google did in May. Though questions over objectivity could be a ethical grey area for journalists as understandably Facebook's number one loyalty would be to it's advertisers. Google came to the same conclusion when it decided not to purchase a publication "trying to avoid crossing the line between technology and content," CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted as saying.

So perhaps for Zuckerberg, investing Facebook's wad of cash in turning itself into the 'next big news publisher' is more trouble than it is worth. None-the-less it is something to watch, as should he decide to enter into the industry, it could be a major game changer.

Source: Econsultancy