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Facebook to invest $5 million in local reporters in creator push

Facebook to invest $5 million in local reporters in creator push

Facebook, with alerts.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Facebook will spend $5 million to pay local reporters as part of its new platform for independent writers, Reuters was first to report Thursday.

Priority will go to reporters focused on "Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian or other audiences of color" in areas that already lack coverage, Reuters reports. The initiative is focused on journalists "who are often the lone voice covering a given community."

The initiative is part of Facebook's new self-publishing platform for journalists, which includes the ability for writers to to send out newsletters. The company has for many years had frosty relationships with news outlets that blame it for plunging revenue in the media sector.

Facebook evidently hopes to capitalize on a recent trend toward independent journalism. In recent months, several well-known journalists have left outlets such as the New York Times or The Verge to try their hand at running their own subscription newsletters. Often flocking to platforms such as Substack, they aim to monetize their popularity among readers, becoming something of a new class of independent online creators.

Ben Brody

Ben Brody (@ BenBrodyDC) is a senior reporter at Protocol focusing on how Congress, courts and agencies affect the online world we live in. He formerly covered tech policy and lobbying (including antitrust, Section 230 and privacy) at Bloomberg News, where he previously reported on the influence industry, government ethics and the 2016 presidential election. Before that, Ben covered business news at CNNMoney and AdAge, and all manner of stories in and around New York. He still loves appearing on the New York news radio he grew up with.

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