Facebook announced the launch of FB Newswire on Thursday. It’s powered by Storyful, and is described as a way for journalists and newsrooms to find, share, and embed newsworthy content from Facebook.
This is keeping in line with other recent moves by Facebook to become more of a news source. The addition of Trends to the Facebook experience and the launch of the Paper app come immediately to mind.
“Powered by Storyful, the leader in social content discovery and verification for newsrooms, FB Newswire aggregates newsworthy content shared publicly on Facebook by individuals and organizations across the world for journalists to use in their reporting,” explains Andy Mitchell, Director, News and Global Media Partnerships at Facebook. “This will include original photos, videos and status updates posted by people on the front lines of major events like protests, elections and sporting events. FB Newswire is accessible on Facebook at Facebook.com/FBNewswire and on Twitter at @FBNewswire, and will be updated in real-time with content related to top news stories.”
Here’s the Twitter profile:
The Facebook page is more pleasing to the eye, with visible media in all the updates.
“In Storyful, we’re excited to have found a partner with a track record of understanding both the potential of the social web as a key resource for media as well as the tools that newsrooms need to utilize it,” adds Mitchell. “We’re confident that their news expertise and best-in-class editorial team will help make it even easier for journalists to use compelling social content from Facebook in their newsgathering and reporting.”
Facebook notes at the end of its announcement that referral traffic from Facebook to media sites grew over 4x in 2013.
While not specific to media sites, referrals to appear to be skyrocketing still.
Image via Facebook