Dive Brief:
- Facebook announced today the launch of "Instant Articles," a program allowing media to publish articles directly within Facebook's platform.
- Nine publishers will be part of the initial launch, including The New York Times, BuzzFeed, National Geographic, NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild.
- As part of the program, publishers will be allowed to sell their own ad inventory within the Instant Articles—or they can utilize Facebook's Audience Network for a 30% cut.
Dive Insight:
Instant Articles have been highly anticipated, especially because Facebook already offers an effective avenue for publishers to distribute content. Some publishers like BuzzFeed have essentially built their empire on Facebook traffic.
Selling ads for Instant Articles could be an interesting process, as the audience will now shift from the publishers' main targeted audience to whoever may see the piece on Facebook. The content will not be exclusive to Facebook, however, and will be also be hosted on the original publisher's site.
Articles in the new program are available at facebook.com/instantarticles, and publishers decide themselves whether to post it on their own Facebook pages, according to Quartz. Facebook began to populate the Instant Articles page Wednesday morning.
