OLD Media Moves

Facebook offers millions to Dow Jones, Bloomberg, but nothing to Reuters and AP

October 22, 2019

Posted by Chris Roush

Facebook has offered millions to Dow Jones and Bloomberg to put its content on its new news page, but hasn’t offered money to rival wire services Reuters and the Associate Press, reports Anna Nicolau and Alex Barker of the Financial Times.

Nicolau and Barker report, “The social media giant has offered no money to Reuters or Associated Press, according to people close to the discussions — arguing that wire services do not qualify despite offering seven-figure deals to rivals Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

“The news page, which Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said will feature ‘high-quality’ journalism, is part of Facebook’s efforts to clean up its image after coming under fire in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election for enabling the spread of fake news.

“Mr Zuckerberg and Robert Thomson, chief executive of Dow Jones owner News Corp, are set to introduce the service on Friday.

“Media outlets such as Condé Nast, BuzzFeed and Dow Jones publications including the Wall Street Journal have agreed to participate in the project, according to people familiar with the matter, in deals in the low millions of dollars. Facebook is still in talks with Reuters and the New York Times.”

Read more here.

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