Facebook planning to pay only about a quarter of publishers: WSJ

The Wall Street Journal is quoting sources as saying Facebook Inc. is planning to pay only about a quarter of publishers whose headlines will be featured in its coming news section. 

Lukas I. Alpert and Sahil Patel report that the specialized news section – which will appear on the toolbar at the bottom of Facebook’s mobile app – is set to launch as soon as the end of October and will include links to stories from about 200 publications. 

Picking up on the story, Fox Business reported that Facebook is offering three-year deals and licensing fees for as much as $3 million a year for national news outlets, and several hundred thousand dollars for the regional publications it features. It’s reportedly in talks to include news from The Wall Street Journal’s parent company Dow Jones & Co., the Washington Post, the New York Times, Business Insider, HuffPost, BuzzFeed and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Users can expect a customized news feed with content targeted at people individually. The section will be curated by people in conjunction with an algorithm.

“We are building a new surface for news that will give more visibility to the journalism of news publishers,” Facebook wrote in a job posting. “We’re looking for experienced journalists to help identify the top stories from news organizations.

Tech giants like Facebook and Google have faced pressure amid antitrust probes by law-enforcement last week investigating competitive activity in technology markets.