Facebook will start displaying news content from numerous German publishers and media outlets on a dedicated part of its site from May, the social media giant announced on Monday.
“We are going to invest about a billion dollars in Facebook News around the world over the next three years,” Jesper Doub, director of news partnerships in Europe, said at an online press conference.
“Facebook News in Germany is part of that,” he added, without specifically saying how much individual publishers will be paid.
Publishers have partnered with Facebook so they can be paid for content linked to the site.
It does not need to be produced especially for Facebook.
“What’s important here is that the content itself doesn’t end up on Facebook, but we do link to publisher offers,” Doub emphasized.
According to Facebook, the partners so far include Germany’s news magazine Spiegel, Funke Media Group and the Hamburg-based publisher Gruner + Jahr, which belongs to the Bertelsmann Group.
Doub described Facebook News as “a long-term collaboration” and added: “We think it will be several years before the product is really good.”
Facebook News launched in the US a year ago and recently launched in Britain as well.
In Australia, Facebook agreed last week to support publishers of its choice after a tough battle with the government over paying for content.
The dispute had briefly led Facebook to ban news content from its platform.
