Facebook willing to pay millions to news publishers for their content

Facebook is reportedly in talks with news publishers to offer 'millions of dollars' for the rights to publish their material on its site, according to a report by ‘The Wall Street Journal’.

Talking to ‘The Wall Street Journal’ on Thursday, Facebook representatives told news executives that they would pay as much as $3million a year to license stories, headlines and other material. The move follows years of criticism over its growing monopolization of online advertising to the detriment of the struggling news industry.

Many in the news industry have long blamed Facebook and Google for using their content for free while the social network slurped up the majority of digital ad dollars, imperiling the news industry.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg began talking about a news section on the service in April. It was also confirmed that the company plans to launch the new tab in Facebook this fall.

Outlets approached by Facebook included ‘Disney’ owned ‘ABC News’, ‘The Washington Post’, ‘Bloomberg’ and ‘Dow Jones’, according to the Journal.

The Journal's report said the licensing deals would be for three years. However, it’s unclear if any media outlets have signed on.