Facebook Inc. (FB)’s “Personalized Newspaper” Will Change News Forever

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Monetizing mobile access is absolutely essential to news organizations. Not only is the number of individuals using mobile devices for news increasing, but also, the joint study by the Pew Research Center and the Economist Group found, that many tablet users actually consume more news than they did before owning a tablet:

31% of respondents spend more time with news.

31% turn to new sources for news.

43% are adding to the news they consume.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)’s personalized newspaper
Zuckerberg’s aim to make the new timeline the world’s best personalized newspaper should accelerate Facebook’s prominence as a source of traffic for news organizations.


Source: Facebook press release.

The updated news feed allows users to select from different categories they would like to view when browsing their news feed. Initially, the categories include friends, pages, specific lists (like “close friends”), photos, or content from people they’ve subscribed to. But a Facebook spokesperson told AllFacebook that, in the future, the categories may expand to include more options.

Just like people might pick up The Wall Street Journal and turn to the business section, they can now look at the news from the Pages they’ve liked, or specifically look at photos. Facebook hopes categorization will make its platform more immersive.

Zuckerberg explained the personalized newspaper concept in further detail:

What we’re trying to do is give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper we can. We believe that the best personalized newspaper should have a broad diversity of content. It should have high-quality public content from world-renowned sources, and it should also have socially and locally relevant updates from family, friends, and the people around you. It should also enable you to drill into any topic that you want to discuss.

Facebook’s importance in advertising
If the new timeline does make Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) a more effective personalized newspaper, its growing importance in the ad space could pick up tremendous momentum among news organizations. It’s tough to estimate the exact effect the redesign will have on ad metrics , but it will undoubtedly be positive. Becoming the world’s best personalized newspaper is an ambitious goal, indeed. But the tide is in Zuckerberg’s favor.

The article Facebook’s “Personalized Newspaper” Will Change News Forever originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Daniel Sparks has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, Facebook, and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Facebook, and Google.

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