Facebook suggesting stories for news media to post

Facebook is testing a feature to simplify how media companies find content to post on its service, stepping up efforts against Twitter for driving traffic to news providers.

The new tool suggests stories from media sites that could be posted on Facebook after the articles show high engagement with users, the company said. The feature takes a more proactive stance in proposing content to post, whereas Facebook previously offered data on what stories were performing well on the site. The social network, which has more than 1 billion users, is looking for new ways to attract content from media and news organizations, especially as Twitter has become a hub for catching breaking news and commenting on the issues of the day. Twitter is set to go public soon. Facebook said referral traffic from its service to media sites has increased by more than 170 percent on average in the past year.