
Bloomberg
Facebook Inc., seeking to calm creators of articles and video after announcing a change in how their work will be promoted in its news feed, sent an email pledging to help them adapt.
Stories and clips that draw comments and likes or are shared by users are more likely to be seen, Facebook said. The company will also continue to prioritise content that users search for or return regularly to view, such as weekly video series.
“We know even a small update to News Feed can be disruptive to you and your talent’s businesses, and this change will take some time to figure out,†the social network said. “As we take this journey together and focus on content that our community can connect around, we’ll work on providing you and your clients with best practices, insights, and tools to help them understand and create content that promotes these meaningful interactions on Facebook.â€
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he’s making changes because feedback has shown that public content has been “crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.â€
Zuckerberg vowed to “fix†the social network after a year that saw Facebook come under sharp criticism for contributing to a climate of extreme political polarisation, the distribution of fake news and escalating privacy concerns.
Both traditional and online news organisations have come to count on Facebook as a source of revenue and readers.