What just happened? Facebook, the social media site that once put as much emphasis on news as it did on its users, will lose its News tab in the US and Australia this April. The announcement isn’t a huge surprise given that the feature has already been removed in the UK, France, and Germany, and the number of US/Australian users dropped sharply last year.
Pre-Meta Facebook made a lot of fuss over the arrival of its News tab in 2019. The feature’s Top Stories section was originally curated by humans, but Meta ended this practice and moved entirely to algorithms last year.
Meta announced in 2023 that it would deprecate Facebook News in the UK, France, and Germany. It writes that the number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the U.S. has dropped by over 80% last year and that news makes up less than 3% of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed.
Meta added that news is now a small part of the Facebook experience for the vast majority of people, and that it intends to “focus our time and resources on things people tell us they want to see more of on the platform, including short-form video.”
The News tab was a lucrative feature for publishers, earning them millions from content deals. The New York Times is reported to have netted $20 million, while the Wall Street Journal received $10 million and CNN got $3 million. Meta says the announcement does not impact existing agreements with publishers in Australia, France and Germany – the deals have already expired (two years ago) in the US and the UK. It will not enter into new commercial deals in any of these countries, and “will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future.”
Facebook users will still be able to view links to articles on the platform and publishers can continue to post direct links on their FB accounts and Pages. The company suggests that publishers use other products such as Reels and its ads system to drive people to their websites.
While the end of the News tab won’t have much impact on publishers in the US, it will in Australia. Facebook blocked news links in the country in 2021 in response to Australia’s proposed new Media Bargaining law that would require companies to pay media organizations for their content. Meta reversed its decision a few days later after reaching three-year, $70 million deals with outlets, which will expire soon and not be renewed.
