Facebook Commits $300M to Support Local News

Facebook says it is investing $300 million over the next three years in local news programs, partnerships and other initiatives.

According to the Associated Press, the money will go toward reporting grants for local newsrooms, expanding Facebook’s program to help local newsrooms with subscription business models and investing in nonprofits aimed at supporting local news.

The move comes at a difficult time for the news industry, which is facing falling profits and print readership. Facebook, like Google, has also been partly blamed for the ongoing decline in newspapers’ share of advertising dollars as people and advertisers have moved online.

Campbell Brown

Campbell Brown, Facebook’s head of global news partnerships, acknowledges the company “can’t uninvent the internet,” but says it wants to work with publishers to help them succeed on and off the social network.

The push to support local news comes as Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, California, tries to shake off its reputation as a hotbed for misinformation and elections-meddling. The company says users have been asking to see more local content that is relevant to them, including news stories as well as community information such as road closings during a snowstorm.

Approximately one-third of the money has already been allocated to local news non-profits and programs, in addition to Facebook’s own local news initiatives. This includes $5 million to the Pulitzer Center, $2 million to Report for America, $1 million to Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, $1 million to be shared between Local Media Association and the Local Media Consortium, $1 million to the American Journalism Project, $6 million to the Community News Project, and $20 million into expanding Facebook’s own Accelerator pilot.