Facebook invests $300 million in journalism
Facebook plans to support journalism in the U.S. and internationally with a $300 million investment. The funds are to be allocated to news programs, partnerships, and content over the next three years.
"With a big focus on local news," explained Facebook manager Campbell Brown on Tuesday. The move follows accusations from the media industry that large internet companies such as Google and Facebook are putting massive pressure on publishers and their business models. "We don't want to make publishers dependent on us, we want to support them," US broadcaster CNN quoted Brown as saying in a conference call.
Google had already launched a similar program for media and journalists. In March 2018, the internet company launched the "Google News Initiative" (GNI) as a global umbrella. It is essentially based on the work of the "Digital News Initiative", which the company used to promote development projects in publishing houses at European level, for example. At the time, Google also announced an investment of 300 million dollars to support the project over a period of three years. (SDA)
