Brazil's Largest Newspaper to Cease Posting on Facebook
February 08 2018 - 12:51PM
Dow Jones News
By Paul Kiernan
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's largest newspaper said Thursday it
has stopped posting content to Facebook after the social-media
website overhauled to its news feed last month to prioritize
personal interactions over journalism and some other types of
content.
Folha de S. Paulo, a São Paulo daily with 285,000 print and
online subscribers, said the decision came as a result of "internal
discussions about the best ways to get its content to readers."
While Facebook users will still be able to share Folha stories, the
newspaper said it would no longer publish content on its Facebook
page, which has 5.76 million followers.
The decision is among the most visible responses yet by a
traditional publisher to the newsfeed shake-up in one of Facebook's
most important countries, where 122 million users log into the
website a month.
The newspaper said it realized Facebook's waning importance as a
source of online readership even before the social-media platform
changed its algorithms in January to prioritize users' posts,
photos and videos. Facebook's share of referrals to Folha's website
fell to 24% in December from 39% in January of last year,
reflecting a broader trend of declining engagement with Brazilian
newspapers via the social-media site, Folha said.
Traffic to Folha's website from search engines, on the other
hand, has risen, the newspaper said.
Folha's move was the latest sign of tension between newspapers
and internet companies like Google and Facebook, which are drawing
advertising revenue that once flowed to media firms.
In a statement, Folha accused Facebook of attempting to "co-opt"
media companies into its Instant Articles program, in which
publishers transfer content to the social network for free in
exchange for speedier page loading and access to advertising
revenue. The newspaper also highlighted concerns that Facebook's
newsfeed changes would "reinforce users' tendency to increasingly
consume content for which they have an affinity, creating bubbles
of opinions and convictions, and propagating 'fake news.'"
Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Write to Paul Kiernan at paul.kiernan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 08, 2018 12:36 ET (17:36 GMT)
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