With an aim to promote independent writers, Facebook has announced a set of publishing and subscription tools -- Bulletin -- to support these creators in the US, a move that is likely to impact the news outlets and other major players.
The tech giant said that Bulletin will include support focused on content creation, monetisation and audience growth, though the business norms and projections are left to the outcome of the model later on.
"The popularity of our local Groups and Pages has shown us that people are hungry for locally-relevant, longer-form content produced by expert and authoritative voices," the company said in a statement.
"Through Bulletin, we want to make Facebook a better place for these creators, and unify our existing tools with something that could more directly support great writing and audio content -- from podcasts to Live Audio Rooms -- all in one place," it added.
Each Bulletin creator will have a standalone website under their brand and will be able to customise their publication's name, logo and colour palette. Creators can also customise their articles with multi-media embeds and other styling options.
Local stand-alone outfits
"We want to connect audiences with a range of new and diverse voices and enable them to go deeper into the topics they care about," the company said.
Bulletin content will be eligible for distribution in Facebook News and other discovery surfaces to help audiences easily find it and subscribe.
The company said it will include tools to distribute podcasts in addition to long-form writing, including externally-hosted podcasts and additional audio features coming soon.
Bulletin will integrate with Facebook Pages to enable publishing across various multimedia formats.
The company said it is also planning to roll out new investments, products and services aimed to support more independent writers and experts this year.
