A facebook-owned news application is “inevitable” and “will not bode well for media companies”, according to the founder of NewsCloud, the social media research blog.

“Facebook will funnel news to you from a variety of sources based on data it already knows about you and your friends,” warned Jeff Reifman on his blog.

“Discussions will increasingly occur inside Facebook rather than on news websites. Traffic may increase for specific stories but it’s likely to decrease the number of visitors who habitually visit your website home page. There will likely be no opportunity to earn revenue from readers within Facebook.

“Readers won’t realize they’re consuming news from an echo chamber designed by Facebook’s feed algorithm. The role of editors to curate important stories will be diminished.”

Reifman says publishers will need to prepare a Facebook strategy and should “host a community space for readers to interact with each other … engage with readers … and refocus on quality journalism.”

Follow the link to read his blog in full.

(Source: NewsCloud)

This article appears in issue 258 of Media Digest.

Image taken by Flickr user Franco Bouly, licensed under Creative Commons.

No related posts.