TORONTO — Facebook Canada announced today it has signed commercial agreements with 14 Canadian publishers to participate in the News Innovation Test, which the social media giant calls “a new initiative to help promote a healthy news ecosystem, elevate authoritative journalism, and deliver a valuable experience for people on Facebook who are interested in news.”
The 14 participating publishers (no broadcasters) are blogTO, Canada’s National Observer, The Coast, La coopérative nationale de l’information indépendente (publishers of Le Soleil, Le Droit and others), Daily Hive, Le Devoir, Discourse Media (The Discourse, IndigiNews and La Converse), FP Newspapers (Winnipeg Free Press, The Brandon Sun and others), Narcity, The Narwhal, SaltWire Network, The Sprawl, The Tyee and Village Media (owner of several community news portals in Ontario).
“The participating publishers represent a broad cross-section of Canadian media, spanning all regions of the country, including digital first and traditional newspapers, in both Official Languages,” reads a Facebook Canada blog post.
“As part of this test we will pay participating publishers for the ability to link to additional news stories not already posted on Facebook — helping us experiment with ways to enhance the experience for people on the platform who are looking for trusted Canadian news about important topics. For example, this might include adding additional links to local and national news to hubs like the Covid-19 Information Centre, Climate Science Information Centre, or other information hubs when they are available. Or it could be for an entirely new surface or use case over time,” continues the blog post.
The announcement did not say how much the social media giant will be paying the publishers.
In a quote attributed to Facebook Canada’s global director and head of public policy Kevin Chan, he says: “We recognize that Facebook has a role to play in supporting journalism, and this test will allow us to partner even more closely with publishers to help them build sustainable business models. Only through communication and collaboration can we make progress, and we look forward to continuing our work to promote a healthy news industry in Canada.”
The launch of the News Innovation Test follows Facebook’s announcement in March that it is expanding the Facebook-Canadian Press News Fellowship with an additional $8 million investment over the next three years. Earlier this month, the Facebook Journalism Project partnered with Vancouver-based Indiegraf to launch the BIPOC Media Growth Program (which is accepting applications until May 28).
For more on today’s announcement, including statements from some of the participating publishers, please click here.
