Facebook launches Instant Articles with Buzzfeed and The Guardian among first partners
Facebook has pushed ahead with the launch of its Instant Articles initiative with publishers including Buzzfeed, BBC News and The Guardian set to publish articles directly to the social media site’s app.
The move, which has been an open secret in the media industry for some time, will see publishers be able to sell ads directly to monetise the platform, or use the Facebook ad network to sell ads.
While many publishers are keen to experiment with the new platform as a way to engage audiences where they are, and to raise revenues, futurist Ross Dawson warned publishers may be “essentially giving them [Facebook] your future” by doing so.
Buzzfeed Australia editor Simon Crerar told Mumbrella the viral content site would be publishing its first post on the new platform tonight.
Does the click-through count towards the poster’s own website traffic? Or does it remain hosted on Facebook?
Hi Sub,
It remains hosted on Facebook – keeping them in that eco-system.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
From a user experience is great and makes sense to not having to go somewhere to read what you want. If fb did not do it, someone else would have done it.
Now if I am a publisher, i would test native fb instant articles as “movie trailers” or teasers to move users to more in-depth related content hosted at publiher app/website. This way they can monetize ad revenue on both fb and own platforms.
Thanks Alex, very interesting.
Let’s hope Buzzfeed’s advertisers don’t demand that they delete the post again because they don’t like it.
Will publishers posting this content still have to pay to promote it to fans of their pages or will they get some free coverage like the old days?