Dive Brief:

• Facebook is testing email newsletter sign-up forms at the bottom of Instant Articles pieces for select publishers, according to reporting by Digiday.
• Participating publishers include The New York Times and The Washington Post.
• The move comes on the heels of the official launch of Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages, which gives publishers much more control over their content.

Dive Insight:

A key difference between Facebook’s Instant Articles and Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages is with the former publishers give all control over their content and advertising over to Facebook, including clicks and engagement, whereas Google allows publishers to remain in control over the look, feel and monetization of publishers’ mobile optimized content.

By adding a newsletter lead gen form to Instant Articles pieces, Facebook gives publishers a more direct contact point for readers who want to become more engaged with the publishers they are reading on Instant Articles.

“One of the other things we heard is that publishers want to build a more direct relationship with their readers through Instant Articles, and one way to do that is through more regular contact with those readers.” Facebook said in a statement. “It’s very early days for this test, but we look forward to working in conjunction with our partners to test and iterate on the product.”