Facebook launches paid news subscription tool

Social media giant, Facebook confirmed that it plans to launch a paid news subscription tool for news publications on its Instant Articles platform. The tool, which could appease publishers concerned with Facebook’s increasing role in news dissemination, will prompt users with a paywall after they consume a certain amount of articles. Facebook plans to test the tool with certain publishers later this year, and make it more widely available in 2018.

Facebook has recently tried to make Instant Articles more attractive to publishers in other ways as well. One example is the launching of analytics tool that provides news publishers more data on the performance of their stories run on Instant Articles.

Rumors of Facebook developing a metered paywall surfaced earlier in June, and the confirmation of its impending release is important for several reasons:

• It could boost subscription revenues for publishers. Though dependent on the willingness of users to pay for news, the paywall could turn long time readers and those who have become acquainted with reading a certain publication into paying subscribers.
• Publishers and newspapers have been asking for the tool. The confirmation of this tool satisfies a longstanding request by publishers for Facebook to introduce subscription options.
• It could attract large publishers back to Instant Articles who previously left. A subscription paywall could help Facebook convince news publishers of the monetization capabilities Instant Articles can offer through driving subscriptions. This is especially important as large publishers, including The New York Times and Forbes, have previously left Instant Articles because of low monetization.
• Facebook plays an important role in news dissemination. A 2016 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 44% of Americans get their news from Facebook. This highlights the significance of Facebook as a news platform, and signals why it may be difficult for publishers not to consider the platform for distribution.
• Instant Articles have gained traction this year. In the past 6 months, the number of publishers using Instant Articles has grown over 25% — more than 10,000 publishers now use Instant Articles. Additionally, a third of clicks on Facebook now lead to Instant Articles.

The release of this paid subscription tool could help Facebook’s effort to combat fake news. This is contingent on the type of publishers that begin to use the metered paywall on Instant Articles. If Facebook users see the publishers who opt into the paywall as credible, they’ll have more options to subscribe to trusted news sources.

A detailed report on publisher paywalls confirms that id does the following:

• Takes a look at the increased adoption of digital paywalls in the last decade.
• Discusses the three main types of paywalls: strict, metered, and freemium content paywalls.
• Identifies necessary characteristics for publishers that succeed with each paywall and points out potential threats to these publishers.
• Lays out how millennials are shaping the future of the paywall model and forcing publishers to evaluate alternative methods to monetize users.