Long mentioned by the social media giant, the Facebook News service is now a reality in France.
The deployment of this new tab on the Facebook homepage starts on Tuesday.
It will allow Internet users to find the essentials of the day's news with articles from a network of partner media.
The latter are remunerated by Meta, and this payment is added to the settlement of neighboring rights.
“The current Facebook feed does not meet the expectations of people who are interested in information. The articles that go back there may be several days old
,” notes Mathieu Fritsch, director of media partnerships at Meta France.
The social network's algorithm has also been criticized for highlighting sensationalist and controversial content from sometimes dubious sites.
Conversely,
"only professional press publishers, with strict access criteria"
, can only appear on Facebook News , continues Mathieu Fritsch.
Selection by journalists
Around a hundred media members of the Alliance de la presse d'information générale (APIG) are present for this launch, such as
Le Figaro, Le Parisien, Les Échos, La Croix,
and regional newspapers such as
La Voix du Nord, Le Télégramme , Nice-morning
or
South-West.
Meta has also signed agreements with
L'Équipe, L'Express,
Altice Média (BFM) and Prisma Media
(Capital, Current Woman, Here......) "It was important to have a diversity of publishers, with the national, regional and magazine press”
, underlines the Californian group.
According to our information, the media have signed up with Meta for a period of three years.
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Facebook News was launched in 2020 in the United States, followed in 2021 by the United Kingdom and Germany.
According to the American experience,
“for partner publishers, 30% of the traffic generated by Facebook comes from the “News” tab.
And 88% of clicks from “News” are generated by Internet users who did not follow the media's Facebook page
,” says Mathieu Fritsch.
Facebook News would therefore be both a source of additional traffic and a tool to make itself known to a new audience.
But the effect is not immediate.
“Use takes hold over time
,” warns Mathieu Fritsch.
Facebook News mixes algorithmic sorting and human curation.
This journalistic work, grouped together in the “À la une” space, is provided by Media Services.
This agency, a subsidiary of AFP, will ensure 24 hours a day, 7 days a week the selection of articles
"that reflect the most important topics of the day, with articles sourced, balanced, and displaying a diversity of points of view"
, notes the director of media partnerships.
As in Germany, where the group has just entrusted the benchmark press agency of the national market, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), with the curation work, Meta favors in France a collaboration
“with an actor perceived as neutral” ,
explains Mathieu Fritsch.
This contract is separate from the existing agreement between Meta and AFP regarding the verification of content that may constitute disinformation.
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Composed of journalists holding press cards, the Media Services teams are headed by the former AFP correspondent at the White House, Jérôme Cartillier.
For several years, they have provided editorial support for several sites, such as Boursorama and Orange.
“This time, the specifications are not quite the same.
Facebook News puts a very strong emphasis on the added value of content
, ”says Boris Bachorz, AFP communications director.
Several journalists working at AFP have been seconded to focus on curating content on Facebook News.
The news agency did not wish to reveal the number of journalists mobilized.
Media Services journalists will have the delicate task of selecting and prioritizing articles from media outlets participating in Facebook News.
The teams will not touch their title and their illustration photo
.
But they will be able to create thematic files, for example around the presidential campaign.
“There will be no ratings race for headline titles.
And no press publisher partner of Facebook News will find itself more advantaged than another, ”
assures Boris Bachorz.
“We don't have the desire to be the first on hot news
,” adds Mathieu Fritsch.
A case related to neighboring rights
Media Services will promote both free articles and paywalled articles.
And, as part of the contract with Meta, some publishers will make free, for a period of twenty-four hours, a handful of articles normally reserved for their subscribers.
The rest of the Facebook News space will be managed by the social network's algorithm.
The latter will sort the content of partner media according to the user's tastes.
The latter will be able to ban the media or the themes that he does not like.
And, if this first version of Facebook News France is focused on national and international news, the social network is working on a more regionalized version.
"This will require specific developments in France
," says Mathieu Fritsch.
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The birth of Facebook News is deeply linked to the thorny issue of neighboring rights.
“The discussions were complex and long, and it was important to settle the question of neighboring rights first
,” notes the director of partnerships.
Meta has, in fact, been suspected of wanting to impose Facebook News, reserved for partners, to the detriment of the regulation of neighboring rights, which must apply to all of the online press.
The same fears have plagued Google and its News Showcase program.
An agreement signed in October 2021 with Apig ensures that members of the association will receive their related rights and will be able, if they wish, to participate in Facebook News - which gives rise to additional remuneration.
According to
La Lettre A,
the “Facebook News” envelope dedicated to media members of Apig is 60 million euros paid over three years.
The other press families must negotiate directly with Meta.
