The announcement in May 2015 that nine news organizations, including the New York Times, NBC News, the BBC and BuzzFeed, would begin serving up some of their content natively to Facebook’s platform has been the subject of intense scrutiny in the media and publishing world.
Is this a sign of surrender, as media companies wave the white flag before increasingly dominant technology companies? Or is it just a trial balloon, and not the leading edge of a trend that will ultimately lead to the evaporation of news websites themselves?
The answer remains unknown at this point, but what is clear is that Facebook’s “Instant Articles” project was attractive enough — ad revenue will reportedly be split — that it was worth a try for struggling news companies, whose ad revenues continue to decline. Similarly, many news media companies have been eager to collaborate with Snapchat.