Local News’ Transition to Paid Content In the Context of Layoffs, Mergers and Bankruptcies II

Facebook has been a vital source of traffic, accounting for 15–40% of readership for the local and regional news organizations in the 2018 Reuters report. However, many interviewees were concerned about their dependence on the platform, as it rarely serves as a revenue driver and the algorithm could change on a whim.

Since then, Facebook has publicly expressed its support for local news, launching the Facebook Community News Project in the UK in 2018 and merging Today In and Facebook News to prioritize local publications in June 2020. Even so, several newsrooms in this report have strategically reduced their reliance on the platform, recognizing that traffic did not always translate into loyal, paying readers.

Although interviewees expressed some frustration at the lack of transparency from Facebook, they highlighted the benefits of the platform in allowing them to broaden and diversify their readership. They also highlighted the potential of social media in helping them deepen connections with their audiences, such as through reader-engagement initiatives. Therefore, interviewees discussed Facebook less as a ‘necessary evil’, as it was described in the 2018 report, and more in terms of a symbiotic relationship.