Dive Brief:
- In a move that benefits smaller publishers, WordPress has released a tool that supports Facebook Instant Articles.
- Websites and blogs built on WordPress can now use the new plugin to easily post content to Instant Articles.
- Facebook had announced last month that it was opening Instant Articles to all publishers worldwide, regardless of size, on April 12.
Dive Insight:
While major publishers are already using Instant Articles, the new tool aims to make Instant Articles easily available to publishers, especially smaller ones, that use WordPress. According to web tech survey company W3Techs, 26% of all websites are built on a WordPress infrastructure.
“The idea is it takes 30 seconds. You check a box and install plugin, and from there you have an Instant Articles feed ready to go,” Paul Maiorana, vice president of platform services at WordPress.com parent company Automattic, told the Wall Street Journal.
Like all Instant Articles publishers, WordPress users will be able to allow Facebook to sell ads on their content and receive 70% of that revenue.
In other Instant Article news, Facebook recently began testing lead generation with email newsletter sign-up forms for select publishers including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
In December, Facebook made changes to the app’s advertising policies giving publishers more advertising options after complaints the previous ad policy was restricting the amount of revenue publishers could earn from their Instant Article content.
WordPress has already released a plugin for Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages, an Instant Article competitor.
