Facebook launches ‘Bulletin’, its Substack newsletter rival

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: Facebook launches ‘Bulletin’, its Substack newsletter rival

Platform News: Facebook on a smartphone

Facebook Inc launched its newsletter product "Bulletin", a standalone platform for free and paid articles and podcasts that will aim to rival Substack.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the platform, which is live at Bulletin.com, and introduced some of the writers that the company has recruited in a live audio room on Facebook.

Facebook is pushing to compete in the fast-growing email newsletter trend, as high-profile journalists and writers have left media companies over the past year to strike out on their own.

Self-publishing platform Substack is a leader in helping writers sell email subscriptions, and has lured journalists with cash advances. Other tech companies are also competing in the field, including Twitter, which acquired newsletter platform Revue.

Facebook said it would not take a cut of Bulletin creators' revenue at launch and that creators can choose their own subscription prices. It is launching the platform with a number of high-profile personalities and writers, including sportscaster Erin Andrews, author Malcolm Gladwell and "Queer Eye" star Tan France.

The social network has had a tumultuous relationship with the news industry, which came to a head in February after a showdown with the Australian government over paying news outlets for content. Following the conflict, Facebook pledged to invest $1 billion in the news industry globally over the next three years.

The company said the articles and podcasts would also be available through the Facebook News Feed and through Facebook's News section.

"We built Bulletin on a separate website to enable creators to grow their audience in ways that are not exclusively dependent on the Facebook platform," it said on the new site.

Facebook said it was primarily launching with US creators and it was not accepting new ones at this time. But it said the Bulletin site was available worldwide and it would look to add more international names after the beta test.

In April, Facebook said it would pay $5 million to recruit independent local journalists to write for its new publishing platform.

The team at Platform Executive hope you have enjoyed this article. Automatic translation from English to a growing list of languages via Google AI Cloud Translation. Initial reporting via our official content partners at Thomson Reuters. Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in New York and Sheila Dang in Dallas. Editing by William Maclean, Aurora Ellis and Angus MacSwan.

You can stay on top of all the latest developments across the platform economy, find solutions to your key challenges and gain access to our problem-solving toolkit and proprietary databases by becoming a member of our growing community. For a limited time, our subscription plans start from just $16 per month. What are you waiting for?

This news article was published by Platform Executive, the home of the platform economy.

If you enjoy the content then please post a link on your website, or share on social media to help us get the word out.



Facebook launches ‘Bulletin’, its Substack newsletter rival posted first on https://www.platformexecutive.com/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

4 tips for bouncing back from a business hardship

The 6 best resources to learn about database management

Google, Facebook agreed to team up against possible antitrust action, draft lawsuit says