By Deepa Seetharaman
Facebook Inc. is offering to let publishers keep all the revenue
from certain advertisements, in a bid to persuade them to
distribute content through the social network, according to people
familiar with the matter.
Many publishers now post links to their content on Facebook,
which has become an important source of online traffic for news
sites. But opening those links on a mobile device can be slow and
frustrating, taking around eight seconds.
The Facebook initiative, dubbed Instant Articles, is aimed at
speeding that process, people familiar with the matter said.
Facebook plans to start hosting news and videos from BuzzFeed, The
New York Times, National Geographic and other publishers as early
as this month, those people said.
While the proposal has attracted interest from some publishers,
many others are wary of tethering themselves more tightly to
Facebook. Big Web publishers on average get about 60% of their
traffic through referrals from Facebook. In a survey by the Pew
Research Center last year, 48% of respondents said they read news
about politics and government on Facebook in the past week, about
as many as got news about these topics from local television.
To woo publishers, Facebook is offering to change its
traditional revenue-sharing model. In one of the models under
consideration, publishers would keep all of the revenue from ads
they sell on Facebook-hosted news sites, the people familiar with
the matter said. If Facebook sells the advertisement, it would keep
roughly 30% of the revenue, as it does with most ads. Another
motivation for Facebook to give up some revenue: It hopes the
faster-loading content will encourage users to spend more time on
its network.
It is unclear what format the ads might take, or if publishers
will be able to place or measure the ads they sell within Facebook.
It seems likely Facebook would want publishers to use its own
advertising-technology products, such as Atlas and LiveRail, as
opposed to those offered by rivals such as Google Inc.
Some publishers have additional concerns. In particular, they
want to retain control over the user experience, as well as access
to data on their readers. "It's not just about the bottom line,"
said an executive of one publisher that has had discussions with
Facebook. "Publishers will still want to defend other aspects of
the business."
The deals with Facebook's launch partners are still being
finalized and the timing could change, the people said. Facebook is
in active talks with other publishers as well.
Historically, publishers have also been frustrated with changes
in the formula Facebook uses to place items in users' news feeds,
complaining that changes can trigger sharp drops in traffic to
their sites from Facebook.
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