The logos of the Facebook and Google apps displayed on a tablet.
Denis Charlet | AFP via Getty Images
LONDON – Facebook has announced that it will begin launching its Facebook News product in the UK on Tuesday, and will pay publishers for its content.
Facebook News is a dedicated section within the Facebook app that features curated and personalized news from hundreds of national, local and lifestyle publications.
The product, which competes with Apple News, was launched in the United States last June and the United Kingdom is the second country to have access to it.
Facebook says the product offers “informative, reliable and relevant news” to users “while highlighting original and reliable reports on urgent topics”.
Jesper Doub, Facebook’s European director of news partnerships, said in a blog on Tuesday: “This is the beginning of a series of international news investments”.
He added: “The product is a multi-year investment that puts original journalism in front of new audiences, while also providing publishers with more advertising and subscription opportunities to build sustainable businesses for the future.”
Facebook announced the launch of Facebook News in the UK in November, saying it would feature content from media partners, including Conde Nast, Hearst, The Economist and Guardian Media Group.
On Tuesday, Facebook announced that it had subscribed to Channel 4 News, the Daily Mail Group, DC Thomson, the Financial Times, Sky News and the Telegraph Media Group.
Some of the content that is normally behind paid access is free to view on Facebook News, which is expected to be launched in more countries this year.
“We will continue to learn, listen and improve Facebook news as it launches in the UK and other markets, including France and Germany, where we are in active negotiations with partners,” said Doub.
Technology giants like Facebook and Google are under increasing pressure to pay media companies for their content.
A Facebook spokesman told CNBC that the company will pay certain UK publications to present its content on Facebook News, but he was unable to disclose how much.
“We will pay some publishers to participate in Facebook News,” he said. “We are paying for content that is not yet on the platform in order to achieve a diverse set of coverage in a variety of thematic areas.”
He added: “Monetization for most publishers appearing on Facebook News will be similar to monetization through other Facebook guides, referring traffic to their websites or Instant Articles ads, leading people to access paid access. “
Google battle
Last week, Google signed an agreement to pay French publishers and news agencies for its content.
The agreement comes after several months of negotiations between Google France and the media groups, which are represented by the French lobby Alliance de la Presse d’Information Generale.
Google said it would negotiate individual licenses with alliance members covering related rights and open access to a new company mobile service called News Showcase.
The search giant said last year that it would pay news publishers for the first time, a change in direction from the internet giant that for years refused to do so. The company agreed to a series of initial deals in Germany, Australia and Brazil, and now appears to be extending this to France.
But when the Australian government proposed a new law that would force Google and Facebook to pay news publishers for the right to link to their content, Google threatened to withdraw its widely used search engine.
“Along with uncontrollable financial and operational risk, if this version of the Code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia,” Mel Silva, managing director of Google Australia and New Zealand , he told a senate committee last week.
Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, said at a news conference that “we do not respond to threats”.
– Additional reporting by Ryan Browne of CNBC.