'I'm really looking for signs': Facebook News grows as referral source for publishers

It’s been a long time since news publishers had reason to feel optimistic about a Facebook product. But the recent returns on Facebook News seem worth monitoring more closely.Over the past few months, Facebook has expanded the number of publishers that can distinguish between Facebook News referral traffic and newsfeed referral traffic. And a growing number is seeing evidence that Facebook News, which launched broadly in the U.S. as a program that compensates many participating publishers for their coverage, has traction with at least a pocket of the platform’s gargantuan user base. One publisher said its Facebook News referral traffic has been increasing for five consecutive months. A source at a second publisher said the share of referral traffic coming from Facebook News is 30% higher in 2021 than it was on Election Day. A third said Facebook News now accounts for 50% of its Facebook referral traffic. Many of these growth stats come from a small base — the first two sources said Facebook News still accounts for less than 10% of their Facebook referral traffic; the third source said Facebook, as a whole, accounts for less than 10% of their traffic overall. But the pace of the growth,…
Read More