Dive Brief:
- Facebook is closing in on a deal that would encourage publishers to host news content directly on the social platform.
- In negotiation for several months now, the deal would allow publishers to keep all the proceeds from ads sold against Facebook hosted content.
- Hosted content would allow publishers' content to load faster—improving user experience, especially on mobile.
Dive Insight:
Facebook currently delivers more than half of the big publishers' traffic via referrals. Some are hesitant to become more reliant on Facebook. A significant uptick in the number of eyes on the content might make up for the fact that click-throughs could diminish. Ultimately, this could be a big win for users who appreciate news coming from Facebook.
