Facebook is getting ready to launch a special news video section

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Facebook is reaching out to traditional news outlets.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Facebook Watch, the social network’s video on demand service, is reportedly readying a news section, which will include partnerships with around 10 publishers.

The news comes one day after Apple’s acquisition of $10 a month magazine subscription service Texture. It represents another example of a tech company trying to strengthen relationships with traditional media outlets at a time when topics like “fake news” have strained these interactions.

Facebook is reaching out to publishers

This partnership would represent the first standalone news product for national news in Facebook Watch. While Facebook has previously launched publisher-friendy features like Instant Articles and Facebook Live, these have not been limited only to news companies.

Facebook is reportedly working with these publishers to come to an arrangement around budgeting and monetization. The current deal with Facebook Watch’s original video content is that it is produced for the company by partners, who earn 55 percent of advertising revenue while Facebook keeps 45 percent.

“Timely news video is the latest step in our strategy to make targeted investments in new types of programming on Facebook Watch,” Campbell Brown, Head of News Partnerships for Facebook, told Axios, who first reported on the story. “…As part of our broader effort to support quality news on Facebook, we plan to meet with a wide-range of potential partners to develop, learn and innovate on news programming tailored to succeed in a social environment. Our early conversations have been encouraging, and we’re excited about the possibilities ahead.”

Particularly since the 2016 Presidential elections, Facebook has caught a lot of flack for supposedly helping to spread news from non-legitimate outlets.

Source: Axios

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