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Facebook Launches News Section, Will Pay Publishers

Associated Press

   Over the course of its 15-year history, Facebook has variously ignored
   news organizations while eating their advertising revenue, courted them
   for video projects it subsequently abandoned, and then largely cut
   their stories out of its newsfeeds.
   Now it plans to pay them for news headlines--reportedly millions of
   dollars in some cases.
   Enter the ``News Tab,'' a new section in the Facebook mobile app that
   will display headlines--and nothing else--from The Wall Street Journal,
   The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, Business Insider, NBC, USA Today
   and the Los Angeles Times, among others. Local stories from several of
   the largest U.S. cities will also make the grade; headlines from
   smaller towns are on their way, Facebook says.
   Tapping on those headlines will take you directly to publisher websites
   or apps, if you have any installed.That'sone thing publishers have been
   requesting from Facebook's news efforts for years.

   Skepticism
   It's potentially a big step for a platform that has long struggled with
   both stamping out misinformation and making nice with struggling
   purveyors of news.Media watchers, however,remain skeptical that
   Facebook is really committed to helping sustain the news industry.

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