While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg looked cheerful and also joked when he took the stage in front of journalists and media executives, he admitted that there are reasons for the news industry to be cynical.
After all, Facebook has been one of the main forces creating a problematic financial reality for the industry over the past decade.
And there are lots of people, including Josh Constine, who think it would be unwise for publishers to believe the company again.
What Seems To Be The Problem?
For one point, there is the question of how Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes various types of content, and how modifications to the algorithm can be enormously damaging to publishers.
Zuckerberg said that they could do a better job of working with partners to have more clarity and also manage time about what we see in the pipeline.
He feels stability is a big theme.
So Facebook may be seeking something out as an “experiment,” but if it creates a spike, it can be difficult for your business to plan for that.
At the same point, Zuckerberg debated that Facebook’s algorithms are one of the smallest understood things about what they do.
Particularly, he saw that many people blame the company of simply optimizing the feed to retain users on the service for as long as possible.
Zuckerberg Promotes Journalism
Zuckerberg went on to imply that the company has had a deep interest in promoting journalism.
However, its attempts were initially focused on the News Feed, where the “fundamental architecture” made it challenging to find much room for news stories, especially when maximum users are more engaged in that content from friends and family.
So Facebook News could help as a more natural home for this news.
Zuckerberg also stated that since past operations have created such “thrash in the ecosystem,” Facebook desired to make sure it got this right before starting it.
Facebook is additionally paying some of the publishers who are engaging in Facebook News.
Zuckerberg defined this as “the first time they are forming long-term, steady connections, and partnerships with a lot of publishers.”
The company further had to compensate publishers who are using some of their content out from behind their paywalls.
Zuckerberg stated that this is not an accurate formula, maybe they will get to that over time, but it is all within a band.
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