Facebook follows Google with funds to support journalism

WASHINGTON: Facebook announced Tuesday that it will invest $300 million over three years to support journalism, with an emphasis on promoting hard-hit local news organizations.

The move, on the heels of a similar initiative by Google last year, comes with online platforms dominating the internet advertising ecosystem, making it harder for legacy news organizations to make a transition to digital. “People want more local news, and local newsrooms are looking for more support,” Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice president in charge of global news partnerships, said in a blog post. “That’s why today, we’re announcing an expanded effort around local news in the years ahead.” In the US, social media has overtaken print newspapers as a news source for Americans, according to a survey released last year by the Pew Research Center. The survey report found 20 percent of US adults say they often get news via social media, compared with 16 percent from newspapers. Facebook, which has been criticized for enabling manipulation of its news feed, has consistently said it does not want to be considered a media organization that makes editorial decisions but wants to support journalism and efforts to fight misinformation.