Facebook to Remove News Tab, Ceases Payments to US Publishers

In an upcoming move set to take place in early April 2024, Facebook announced on Thursday its decision to remove a dedicated section for news articles that will affect Facebook users in the United States and Australia.

Facebook's News tab was established in 2019 with millions of dollars in content deals for publishers, a reported $10 million for the Wall Street Journal, $20 million for the New York Times, and $3 million for CNN.

Facebook to Remove News Tab

According to Meta, Facebook News will be "deprecated" in the US and Australia as the company will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future. It will also not enter into any new news-related commercial agreements.

In a corporate blog post, the social networking giant explained that the closure of the Facebook News tab was part of an ongoing effort to better align their investments to the products and services people value the most.

Facebook has already retreated from the news, and the writing has been on the wall. It began focusing on the Creator economy in 2022, replacing news, and Campbell Brown, the former head of news partnerships, left the company last October.

However, the company said, "We hope this work aids in our effort to sustain great journalism and strengthen democracy," when it launched Facebook News in 2019. It also said that a survey found they were under-serving many topics people wanted most in their News Feeds, especially around categories like entertainment, health, business, and sports.

Instead of paying publishers, Meta will have to focus their time and resources on things people tell them they want to see more of on the platform, including short-form videos. This contrasts the message sent by publishers, reiterating that news makes up less than 3% of what people worldwide see in their Facebook feed and is a small part of the Facebook experience for most people.

It encouraged publishers to continue posting links on their pages and to use Reels and advertisements to drive users to their websites, away from Facebook.

(Photo: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images)
This picture, taken on January 12, 2023, in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows a smartphone and a computer screen displaying the logos of the social network Facebook and its parent company, Meta.

Australia's Government Changes Legal Framework

In the US, where it terminated the agreements two years ago, Facebook's licensing agreements are no longer news. Still, in Australia, the company no longer pays the $70 million annually that it previously gave to publications, including Sky News Australia, News Corp, Seven, Nine, and The Guardian. These three-year agreements reached following the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code's passage by Australia's government are about to run out.

The 2021 power struggle ended when Australia changed its legal framework, causing Facebook to temporarily impose a news ban that removed pages belonging to nonprofits and government agencies. Due to a similar law, Facebook and Instagram stopped news in Canada last year.