Mediatwits #161: Facebook Woos Publishers with Instant Articles on Mobile

Published: May 22, 2015, 2:33 a.m.

For some time, Facebook has been in an elaborate dance with large news publishers, hoping to sweep their content off publishers’ sites and onto Facebook. While publishers have been wary of giving up control, many signed up for the new Instant Articles feature on Facebook’s iOS app, helping load their content quickly instead of the usual 8-second delay. But all media watchers aren’t necessarily welcoming it with open arms. They worry, understandably so, that in the transition to a mobile platform, their share of revenues will shrink just like it did from print to digital. But the social giant has offered some concessions, letting them keep all the ad revenue they sell themselves; they can also let Facebook sell ads and still get 70% of revenues. The key here is control. The social media giant has limited not just the number of ads publishers can add to their content but also the kinds of ads. And while the revenue split may seem to favor publishers, who’s to say Facebook won’t change the rate in the future? Facebook has become such a large source of traffic that should they decide to change the deal, many publishers would be hard pressed to walk away. Joining us this week to discuss Facebook Instant Articles will be John Herrman, editor at The Awl; Deepa Seetharaman, reporter at the Wall Street Journal; Michael Sebastian, reporter at Ad Age; and regular guest Andrew Lih at American University. PBS MediaShift’s Mark Glaser will host and Jefferson Yen will be producing.