Facebook is emphasizing on competing with the rapidly growing email newsletter trend. At the same time, other tech companies are also competing in this area, including Twitter.
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Facebook on Tuesday launched its newsletter product “Bulletin”, a standalone platform for free and paid articles and podcasts. Its target will be to compete with Substack. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the platform, which is live on Bulletin.com. Some writers were introduced on the platform, who the company has recruited in the live audio room on Facebook.
Facebook is pushing to compete with the booming email newsletter trend, as high-profile journalists and writers have forced media companies to strike on their own over the past year. Self-publishing platform Substack has been a leader in helping writers sell email subscriptions, and it has lured journalists with cash advances. Other tech companies are also competing in this area, including Twitter, which has acquired newsletter platform Review.
Facebook said it would not cut the revenue of Bulletin creators at launch and creators could choose their own subscription price. It is launching the platform with a number of high-profile personalities and writers including sportscaster Erin Andrews, author Malcolm Gladwell and “Queer Eye” star Tan France.
Facebook promises to invest $1 billion in news industry
The social network has had an unmatched connection to the news industry, with the Australian government in dispute over paying news outlets for content in February. After the conflict, Facebook promised to invest $1 billion (about Rs 7400 crore) in the news industry globally over the next three years. The company said that articles and podcasts will also be available through Facebook News Feed and Facebook’s News section.
On the new site, Facebook said, “We created the bulletin on a separate website so that creators can grow their audience in a way that is not exclusively dependent on the Facebook platform.”
Facebook said it was launching primarily with US creators and was not accepting new ones at this time. But it said the bulletin site is available worldwide and it would consider adding more international names after beta testing. In April, Facebook said it would pay $5 million to recruit independent local journalists to write for its new publishing platform.
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