Facebook Is Paying The Wrong People For Content
Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are under attack, yet again. Earlier this week, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will begin paying news sites big dollars for their content to appear on Facebook timelines. This is a huge win for companies like USA Today, Buzz Feed, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and more. It’s a good strategy as content is king but why pay the bigger companies when it’s the little guys who need the help?
According to Vox:
Facebook will pay some of its news partners as much as $3 million a year for three-year deals but doesn’t intend to pay all of the publishers in the program. Publishers who don’t get paid will have to be content having Facebook send them traffic and potential subscribers.
Three million a year for companies already pulling in that type of revenue or more? The big question is, what about these other sites that have become the heart and soul of Facebook? For instance, when scrolling through Facebook, there are 1000’s of FB Groups geared towards Sports, Entertainment, and other genres. This is where the real Facebook users live.
Instead of offering those bigger sites large sums, why not break that funding down for smaller sites like Clutch Points, 3 Point Conversion, Screen Rant, and CMRS. These are the sites that fans interact with and sites that do not offer the same so-called “original” content seen over and over from TV outlets, live videos and web press.
This is what News Corp CEO Robert Thomson had to say;
If Facebook wants to recognize ‘trusted’ publishers then it should pay those publishers a carriage fee similar to the model adopted by cable companies,” Murdoch said in January 2018 press release. “It is certainly appropriate for Facebook to pay premium publishers and premium journalists for the reputational and experiential services they provide,” Thomson said at an Italian media conference a few months later.
Since this is all about the content, then why throw shade at the small voices who just happens to be the large voices in the FB community? If this deal is to bring more content to the masses then spend some of that money on the everyday journalist who logs in every day and post their hard work over social media?
Last I checked, USA Today, News Corp, The Post, and all these other big brands are vying for attention that journalist like myself have been searching for, for years. Maybe users no longer want to see the same recycling tired post on their daily feeds. It’s time to move into a new era, Mr. Zuckerberg.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
