Facebook as your news source?
Recently, I wrote about a social media event I attended looking at the future of social media. One of the main predictions was Facebook would become a site people looked to for news updates. Well, the future wasn’t that far off, because the Rockville Central, a community newspaper near Washington, DC, moved all of its operations and news coverage to the paper’s Facebook page effective March 1.
Both Twitter and Facebook have been utilized by media and companies alike – one side looking for sources, the other looking to be “sourced” but this looks to be the first time an organization has moved its complete operations from a traditional platform to the social space. What does this mean though, when Facebook becomes less of a journalistic tool and more a subscriber destination?
Other outlets have attempted this model, on varying scales, and seem to be faring well. Many organizations have touted the ability to “stay in the know” via news alerts, but these were meant to drive traffic back to the original content hub. Boston.com has taken this a step further, creating a Facebook application “Your Boston” that functions as a news site within Facebook. In addition to driving community interaction, the page generates its own ad revenue, a huge issue among news organizations, regardless of where they host their content.
While still in its infancy, it will be interesting to follow the Rockville Central and its inevitable successors as they drive to create a true “News” feed on Facebook.
What do you think?
Tags: Facebook, news
Posted by Miranda Coykendall on March 1, 2011 at 8:40 PM
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