Facebook has announced that it will be launching a free self-publishing newsletter platform to help independent and aspiring writers and journalists publish their work and build their readership communities.
Overall, Facebook hopes that this new platform will empower writers and help them grow their businesses. In the next few months, Facebook will beta-launch this initiative with a small group of independent writers in the US. The platform – which focuses on content support and audience expansion – will help writers in the following ways:Â
- Provide a self-publishing tool that will allow writers to build custom, individual websites and email newsletters.
- Provide monetization tools such as paid content subscriptions
- Provide search features that will enable readers to discover new writers and content – and will in-turn help those writers build new audiences.
- Give insights that help writers understand how well their content is performing
- Allow writers to use Facebook Groups to build dedicated reader communities.
The launch of Facebook’s new publishing platform is a direct response to Covid 19’s impact on the journalism community – which saw many high-profile journalists leave big newsrooms and publishing houses to start their own websites and newsletters.Â
Some journalists – however – have not been very impressed by Facebook’s latest announcement. Christina Warren – a popular American journalist – urged journalists not to use Facebook’s new platform via Twitter:
I said this last time when this was a rumor and I’ll say it again: any journalist/creator dumb enough to take money from Facebook for this is digging their own grave. They will literally stop paying in a year. https://t.co/npyYMyqq2l
— Christina Warren (@film_girl) March 16, 2021
Facebook faces 2 tough challenges: first, it must convince seasoned journalists that its new journalism platform will bring them a lot of value; second, it must figure out how to compete with established newsletter platforms such as Substack and Revue.
Will Facebook’s Newsletter platform be a major hit? Only time will tell.