2 min read

No News Is Good News

Picture of Tyler Wilcox Tyler Wilcox : January 5, 2018

Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox every Friday.

Is No News Good News on Facebook?

Publishers beware: Facebook is threatening to do away with its news feed in 2018 – a move that would make it even more difficult to reach users. Why would the platform do such a thing? According to Digiday, it’s all about separating users’ personal messages from media and brands’ content – in this era of constant bad news, Facebook found that users were spending less and less time on the site, in order to maintain some semblance of positivity. Last year, the platform tested out a news-less “Explore” feed in some countries. Whether or not this will become the norm remains to be seen … but publishers should start thinking about adapting.

Video Megatrend

What else is (possibly) on tap for Facebook in 2018? Video remains a major part of the platform’s overall strategy. “I see video as a megatrend,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors. “That’s why I’m going to keep putting video first across our family of apps.” The goal is to become a streaming giant that can compete with YouTube and Netflix – and Facebook’s Watch section is Zuckerberg’s big moonshot, with big-budgeted original content covering an array of topics rolling out this year. Will it work? We don’t know yet. “This is not going to happen overnight; it’s going to take years and Facebook willing to spend billions of dollars,” a longtime Hollywood studio executive who has sold a show to Facebook told Digiday. “I think Facebook is aware of that, and from what we’re hearing from their executives, they’re committed to this — until they’re not.”

Stories Everywhere

Facebook isn’t the only social media player planning big moves this year. Snapchat – the favorite platform of millennials – is hoping to grab an older demographic via its “Stories Everywhere” feature. According to Inverse, “Stories Everywhere” will allow stories to live outside of the Snapchat app, meaning that users will be able to share content with non-users. It’s a feature that will in theory expand the platform’s reach immeasurably. It’s not clear when it’ll be available to users, but look for it soon …

The Three-Second Snap

Snapchatters may like being able to share their Snaps outside of the app – but will they like this new development the platform is cooking up? According to Ad Age, Snapchat is considering making users sit through three seconds of commercial breaks before offering a skip option on ads. “For Snapchat, this would be a bold experiment, since leaders under CEO Evan Spiegel have been hyper-sensitive about imposing ads on the audience,” writes Garrett Sloane. “Snapchat's current video ads now are easily dismissed with a tap of the screen, but one top advertiser says that has led to average view times on ads that barely reach a second.” Advertisers will rejoice if Snapchat imposes the three-second rule. We’ll see what users think!

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