Facebook Instant Articles to Get News Subscription Models, Starting With Android

Advertisement
By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 20 October 2017 14:21 IST
Highlights
  • Facebook looks to help news firms gain subscriptions
  • Facebook will now allow paywalls in Instant Articles
  • First of these Instant Article subscriptions to be available on Android
Facebook Instant Articles to Get News Subscription Models, Starting With Android

Facebook announced Thursday initiatives to help struggling news organisations gain paid subscribers, following a similar move unveiled earlier this month by Google.

The social network giant said it will test "premium news models" for organisations that deliver their content on Facebook, to enable the publishers to have more control over pricing, subscriber relationships and revenue.

"Earlier this year, many publishers identified subscriptions as a top priority, so we worked with a diverse group of partners to design, refine, and develop a test suited for a variety of premium news model," said a blog post by Facebook executives Campbell Brown, Alex Hardiman and Sameera Salari.

Facebook said it would soon roll out the test to support new subscription models in Instant Articles in partnership with a news organisations in the US and Europe, starting with the Android application.

Advertisement

The leading social network said it would allow for "paywalls" in its Instant Articles feature, aiming to encourage users to sign up and pay news organisations whose content is linked through Facebook.

If a person subscribes after prompting, the publisher will handle the payment directly and keep 100 percent of the revenue, Facebook said.

Advertisement

Facebook said it would allow for various paywalls including a "metered" system with a fixed number of articles as well as a "freemium model" where certain content is locked at the discretion of the publisher.

Included in the test will be Germany's Bild and Spiegel, France's Le Parisien, Italy's La Republicca, the Telegraph and the Economist of Britain and the US-based Boston Globe, Washington Post, and news groups Hearst and Tronc, which includes the Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, and San Diego Union-Tribune.

Advertisement

Facebook said the changes are part of its Journalism Project created this year aimed at fostering "a healthy news ecosystem" and curbing the spread of fake news.

The moves by Facebook and Google come with many news organisations blaming the internet giants for encouraging free content, while getting most of the ad revenues from news articles appearing on their platforms.

Earlier this month, Google announced similar actions, ending a "first click free" policy that required news organisations to provide at least three free articles to be indexed in a Google Search.

This will be replaced by a "flexible sampling" model that will allow publishers to require a subscription at any time they choose, according to Google.

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. OTT Releases of the Week: Rana Naidu Season 2, The Traitors, and More
  2. iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max Alleged Geekbench Listing Leaked
  3. Sony Announces Limited-Period Discount on Audio Products in India
  4. Poco F7 Spotted on Geekbench With Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, 12GB of RAM
  5. OnePlus Nord 5 Allegedly Spotted on Geekbench With This Chipset
  6. Nothing Phone 3 to Be Manufactured in India, Company Reveals Model Number
  7. OnePlus 13s Sale Starts Today in India: Check Price and Offers
  8. Top Smartphones Under Rs 40,000 in India (June 2025)
  9. Realme 15 Pro Tipped to Launch in India in These Colour Options
  1. Apple to Release Advanced Siri for iPhone With iOS 26.4 Update in Spring 2026: Report
  2. OTT Releases of the Week (June 9 - June 15): Rana Naidu Season 2, The Traitors, Alappuzah Gymkhana, and More
  3. Hubble Finds Cosmic Dust Coating Uranus’ Moons, Not Radiation Scars
  4. New Theory Challenges Black Hole Singularities, But Critics Raise Red Flags
  5. Solar Orbiter Captures First-Ever Close-Up of Sun’s South Pole, Revealing Magnetic Field Chaos
  6. The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 OTT Release Date: When and Where to Watch Final Season Online?
  7. Mokshapatam Hindi OTT Release: Where to Watch it Online?
  8. Titan: The OceanGate Disaster Now Streaming on Netflix: What You Need to Know
  9. Stellar Blade Becomes Sony's Biggest Single-Player Steam Launch Ever a Day After PC Release
  10. Microsoft 365 Copilot Vulnerable to Zero-Click EchoLeak Exploit, Cybersecurity Researchers Say
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.