Facebook just launched a news service called FB Newswire. It is designed to give writers, journalists and news companies a way to stay in touch with trending and developing stories. The company hopes to mirror how Twitter has become a global news service, that breaks stories before anyone else.
FB Newswire content will come from two sources. The main one is Storyful, a social-news service that News Corp. acquired in December for $25 million. As a Facebook post by Andy Mitchell describes it, the service will highlight content that has been posted by users and media entities who are reporting on breaking news events around the world, and comes complete with an easy-to-use “embed” function.
The second source of news stories will be sourced by users status updates that link to a 3rd party news website. The Facebook algorithms will incorporate video, pictures and headlines. Users will be able to embed the stories, with special code, similar to how Twitter handles embedded Tweets.
The sole premise of this initiative is to give journalists and news companies the ability to trust the sources. This is why the vast majority of it will come from confirmed companies like Storyful.
FB Newswire is accessible on Facebook at Facebook.com/FBNewswire and on Twitter at @FBNewswire, and will be updated in real-time with content related to top news stories.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
