TheCable

Facebook has announced plans to launch a self-publishing platform to enable independent writers and journalists monetise their content.

Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice-president of global news partnerships and product manager, broke the news in a blog post on Tuesday.

According to the social media giant, the platform will help writers to self-publish their content, grow their audience, and make money through monetisation tools starting with subscriptions.

Facebook said the initiative would take off in the coming months in the United States.

“As writers, experts and journalists publish more of their work independently, we’re working to better support those efforts and make it easier for those content creators to build businesses online,” it wrote.

“In the coming months in the U.S., we’ll introduce a new platform to empower independent writers, helping them reach new audiences and grow their businesses. We will start by partnering with a small subset of independent writers.

“A large part of this initiative is aimed at supporting independent local journalists who are often the lone voice covering a given community. We’ll work to include them at launch, and build tools and services specific to their needs.”

Facebook said the platform will include a free, self-publishing tool with robust styling options to create individual websites and an email newsletter.

The company added that it will also include features to help audiences easily discover new content and writers and in turn help those creators build direct relationships with their audience.

It said the initiative is part of its mission to support the media landscape. The company revealed that it has invested $600 million to support journalism since 2018, adding that it plans to invest an additional $1 billion in news over the next three years.

Facebook is, however, expected to face competition from other social media giants including Twitter which will also launch similar initiatives.

The development comes amid moves by some countries to make online platforms pay for news contents. The company had reportedly clashed with the Australian government recently over such moves.