Mark Zuckerberg made a move to confuse newspapers: Recruiting a series of authors to write for his own news site, publicly promoting to 2.85 billion Facebook users

CNN reported that Facebook has just launched a new news product called Bulletin. Bulletin is Facebook’s version of Substack (an email newsletter platform): A way to create and distribute free and paid newsletters. Facebook has recruited dozens of writers across fields such as sports, science, health and finance.

It is expected that the Bulletin author team and initial bulletins will be introduced on Tuesday. Participants are being paid to start their newsletter with the expectation that they will build a paying fan base over time. According to CNN’s research, some authors have been stockpiling ideas for articles for weeks. But most of them are more obscure about the bigger picture, and some say they’re looking forward to finding others who are also participating in the Bulletin.

Axios reporter Sara Fischer recently wrote that Bulletin is an example of how Big Tech is “racing to build and acquire new tools that will help them compete with smaller upstarts to attract attention of content creators…”.

In fact, Twitter is also stepping up its push into the news delivery space, through its acquisition of Revue earlier this year and a deal with Eric Holthaus to provide weather reporting…

Reporter Callum Jones writing for The Times of London said: “Email is back and the social media giants are starting to take notice…”.

What is Mark Zuckerberg planning?

Like its competitors, Bulletin has a fairly simple operating mechanism: Users find a pen they like, who writes about things that interest you, subscribe to and receive a regular stream of content in inbox. Some versions of Bulletin will be free and will also have a paid option at some point in time.

The biggest change in this product of Facebook is… Facebook. Specifically, Facebook’s massive reach, with 2.85 billion users worldwide, and its ability to target and categorize people who can easily read and pay for a newsletter covering topics that they are interested in.

“They’re demonstrating the ability to find community at scale,” said one author who spoke to Facebook about joining the Bulletin. A Facebook representative declined to comment on the matter.

However, while Facebook will use Facebook to promote Bulletin, the product itself will exist outside of Facebook. If you click the Bulletin link while using the Facebook app, you’ll open a new browser window where you can read stories or sign up for the newsletter.

Those working on the Bulletin project say that such a design is partly meant to differentiate Bulletin’s brand from Facebook – especially at a time when readers and writers may be lacking trust in Facebook. Another part is to evade the 30% tax levied by Apple and Google.

The Bulletin is also now an attempt to prove that people want to read things they can’t or can’t find on Facebook. At least, at launch, Bulletin will be limited to the dozens of authors that Facebook is hiring and paying for.

The first Bulletin author group will include writers on topics such as sports, fashion and the environment, as well as a panel of local news writers. Facebook previously said it would spend at least $5 million to “support local journalists interested in starting or continuing their work” on Bulletin.

Facebook understands that the need to convince authors to join a news project is not a scam. So it is offering authors a two-year contract – with an option for the author to opt out after the first year. This is an attempt to convince the authors that Facebook is serious about the endeavor.

It’s unclear if Facebook will offer authors the opportunity to monetize subscription sales on top of the payments they offer, but the company has previously hinted that it won’t take a cut of subscription revenue. created by the authors.

According to CNN, whether Bulletin succeeds or fails, it does not affect Facebook much when the company still makes almost all of its money from advertising and generated $ 9.5 billion in profit in just 3 years. first month of 2021. However, it is worth noting that Facebook is pouring a large amount of resources into this effort. A good example is that they paid over 6 million USD to buy URL Bulletin.com this year.

The Bulletin is also quite in sync with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s new and public interest in supporting the “creative economy.” The idea was talked about by him when he revealed Facebook’s plans to build a suite of audio products, including a podcast player and a Clubhouse clone.

Facebook may eventually tie all of that together with Bulletin, so writers can add members-only recordings or live events to their subscription services.

So if Bulletin or Substack, and other versions of newsletters run by individuals or small groups of authors, succeed and survive, it will give journalists a different way of making money. With established news outlets trying to figure out how to stay in business and retain their best journalists, the prospect of the Bulletin is certainly an inevitable threat.

Source: CNN, Recode