For a company that says it’s not a publisher, Facebook just can’t stay away from the news industry. According to Axios, Facebook is testing a tool for journalists to build websites and newsletters that can host text, video, status updates, and other content. The company plans to pay some writers while eventually opening the program more widely. The social media giant, says Axios, is “trying to help find ways individual journalists can thrive as creators.” LinkedIn and Twitter, which earlier this year purchased a newsletter platform called Revue, have similar plans in development to pay writers or allow them to monetize their work.
Axios’s use of “creators” is the tell. Independent journalists and writers are now much like any other digital influencer or content producer, following the money from platform to platform. It risks becoming an endless hustle, the constant accumulation of followers and efforts at self-monetization, the core product being almost as important as all the other trappings of being a digital personality. Under these terms, any tech company can start to seem like a welcoming partner, if not a beneficent institution.
In recent months, the beleaguered media world’s collective fascination has centered around Substack, a venture capital–backed newsletter platform that has attracted some
— source newrepublic.com | Jacob Silverman | Mar 17, 2021