For any successful online endeavor to stay relevant, change is necessary. That is why as the top social media platform on the Internet, Facebook is about to implement something they have never done before: a paywall subscription.
Before you take a mob with pitchforks and torches to Mark Zuckerberg’s sprawling Hawaiian estate, this paywall only applies to select media outlets. This means your newsfeed will still continue to see non-stop ‘prayer memes’ from your Nan, or disturbingly casual racialist tirades from your uncle Bob, and even requests from former classmates to participate in whatever multi-level marketing scam they are involved in.
Paywall for Media Stories
The testing phase will begin as soon as October and is part of Facebook’s larger Journalism Project. The social media giant is working out ideas on how to be a disseminate news better compared to Twitter and other platforms. At the same time, they are compelled to take some ethical stand against the spread of propaganda and “fake news”. Because of the platform’s massive worldwide reach, it has been the ideal weapon for those whose trade involves selling misinformation.
The paywall announcement comes from Campbell Brown, Facebook’s head of new partnerships business. According to Brown, the paywall idea is still in its infancy. However, the social media platform is taking their time to work closely together with their affiliate partners to improve it. The test will involve only a handful of publishers for now introducing a 10-article limit per month. Users will be asked to subscribe after that point. Each media partner will also have full control on what content will be behind the paywall or which will be free. More importantly, the media partners also get full access to their subscriber data that Facebook collects. Although it is not clear how much user data they will have access to so that they can increase engagement.
The subscription model may not be getting many media sites the traffic they once got. However, it appears to be enough to keep many of them afloat and profitable. Brown did not reveal yet which media partners exactly they are working with and are participating in the program.
