Are we really doing this again? After the pivot to video. After Instant Articles. After news was deleted from the News Feed. Once more, Facebook dangles extra traffic, and journalism outlets leap through its hoop and into its cage.
Tomorrow, Facebook will unveil its News tab. About 200 publishers are already aboard, including The Wall Street Journal and BuzzFeed News, and some will be paid. None seem to have learned the lesson of platform risk.
When you build on someone else’s land, don’t be surprised when you’re bulldozed. And really, given Facebook’s flawless track record of pulling the rug out from under publishers, no one should be surprised.
MacDailyNews Take: Josh’s argument that publishers should not trust Facebook is entirely logical. Consumers of news, as well, should seek news from disparate sources in order to arrive at some semblance of the truth.
As always, the best way to consume “news” is to cast a wide net.
As always, readers of “news” need to consider the sources and interpret what they are being told accordingly. The more disparate sources you can find, the better. And we don’t mean different newspaper, network, website brands that are all owned by the same conglomerate. Determining the actual ownership of your “news” sources is an investment that requires a bit of time, but it is very enlightening. — MacDailyNews Take, June 17, 2015