What Facebook’s Feed Changes Mean for the News

For publishers, Facebook’s plans to shake-up its news feed may mean a dramatic change in traffic from the platform. The social media company has said its new algorithm will prioritize what it calls “meaningful social interactions”—posts, photos and videos that users share and discuss. Content directly from publishers won’t perform as well unless people engage with it. “The potential impact on publishers will depend on the extent to which traffic from Facebook is a significant percentage of a publisher’s traffic and, more significantly, its revenue,” says Nicco Mele of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. Yet Facebook also has said that it will surface content from “reputable publishers,” ranking news sources based on user evaluations of credibility. Experience has shown, though, that users are more likely to comment on and share sensational articles than dry, fact-based news. Publishers who have built their businesses on virality may do better, at least relative to their more staid peers. That also raises a risk that the changes will amplify fake news, which could draw renewed criticism for the company.