INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Facebook has unveiled its initial lineup of news programming that will be airing in a dedicated section of Watch, the original video
content initiative the social network launched last year.
While these shows are being produced by outside media organizations, it actually
Facebook that funding them
In a blog post, Head of News Partnerships Campbell Brown described this as an extension of the company announcement in January that it would
prioritize meaningful social interaction over publisher content.
While that decision took a toll on digital publishers, Brown echoes CEO
Mark Zuckerberg rationale for the move, saying that while there will be less news in users& feeds, what remains should be ''trustworthy,
informative, and local.
Here how Brown describes the news initiative:
This first lineup of funded shows includes news publishers from
broadcast to digital native, national and local
The shows will be hosted by award-winning journalists, as well as new faces, and the formats will vary from a mix of daily briefings, weekly
deep dives, and live breaking news coverage
They&ll debut later this summer, and we&ll announce additional shows in the coming weeks
We will work closely with our publisher partners to experiment with these different formats to understand what works, and they will have
full editorial control of their shows.
The shows include:
A daily news show from ABC News
Chasing Corruption,& a series from Alabama
Advance Local that interviews watchdog journalists
A weekly explainer program from ATTN:
CNN &Anderson Cooper Full Circle,& a weekday news
brief featuring Cooper and guests
Daily updates from Fox News& Shepard Smith and others
A twice-weekly show from Mic
Univision &Real America
with Jorge Ramos,& where Ramos interviews immigrants from diverse backgrounds
Univision will also air a daily news roundup in Spanish.
