Like Google Adwords, Facebook’s news hosting program will prove to be a long-term extortion scheme!

 

Google will reduce traffic to your site if you reduce/eliminate spending on its Adwords program. Adwords/Adsense customers have to be ever watchful of whom they link to. They are discouraged from hosting links from Google’s advertising competitors. (https://moralvolcano.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/getting-free-google-adwords-credit-in-your-mail-is-a-bad-omen/)

Facebook will be no different.

It already limits content visibility by using algorithms to pick and choose what content posted on Facebook is visible to followers.

Now, these algorithms will be tweaked (like what Google had done with their Plus/News/Search/Adwords/Adsense programs) so that visibility is limited to those news sites who are willing to pay it extortion money.

This is all contrary to what Facebook promised when it was trying to expand its network. In those days, Facebook encouraged news websites to promote their Facebook pages and asked them to increase their Facebook followers. It also convinced them to give up their in-house commenting system and replace it with a Facebook Social commenting plugin. This greatly benefited Facebook, as commenting was not possible without a Facebook account. With each new news site, Facebook benefited more than the news site that used it. Essentially, Facebook grew by swallowing user networks already built up by the news sites.

Now, Facebook is bigger and wants to be paid for it. Contrary to what they are claiming at analysts conferences, their in-house ad network seems not to be bringing in enough money. Datacenter costs must be going over the top every each day.

NYT maybe onboard but it doesn’t make sense for other newspapers to loose control over their network and content.  NYT is syndicated all over the US and the world. Besides, it is not really a business than a shadowy Western version of the Pravda that other non-independent newspapers have to follow to be eligible for advertising money from Rockefeller-controlled global advertising conglomerates.

This also fits with the Rockefeller plan for eliminating all independent newspaper by fudging circulation stats used by their advertisers – see Times of India’s euphoric boast turns melancholy wail after re-reading Indian Readership Survey 2013 (https://moralvolcano.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/times-of-indias-euphoric-boast-turns-melancholy-wail-after-re-reading-indian-readership-survey/) and TV Viewership Rating Companies Acting As Proxies For Buyout Firms (https://moralvolcano.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/tv-viewership-rating-companies-acting-as-proxies-for-buyout-firms/)

Newspapers that think Facebook will bring in more revenue are going to be extremely disappointed. Some might gain but most will lose. Like Google Adsense/Adwords, it will begin with a carrot.

Remember that Facebook once predicted that it will replace email and everyone will be using Facebook instead of e-mail. Where is that now? When these tech companies promote their products, they will make all kinds of promises. (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=facebook+will+replace+email) You don’t have to believe them. Ask for their numbers. Use the techniques that advertisers use on you.

Every newspaper should nurture its own network. The paper and online segments should be seperate and be complimentary. The paper side seems to be under attack by Rockefeller survey-advertising trolls. The online side is under attack by a different set of trolls, namely Google News and Facebook.

You should be careful or you will lose both. Do what you know best. Do it fearlessly. Print good quality journalism. Educate your readers. Don’t propagandize them. Most readers want news, not views. People can draw their own conclusions. Excessive views is the main reason that people stop reading newspapers. Newspapers are becoming what TV news has become – annoying. (https://moralvolcano.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/arnabgoswami-beheads-isis-and-and-other-jokes/) A paper will do well if it can assure readers that it will will provide all the news they need. Give what the people want. That is the first lesson in journalism.

Indian newspapers should also jointly create a survey agency that will publish readership numbers that can be relied upon.