Facebook is reportedly gearing up to launch a news section and approaching major news outlets with offers to pay millions of dollars for the rights to use their content, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The WSJ said the social media giant had approached news outlets including ABC News, Dow Jones, The Washington Post and Bloomberg.
Citing sources, it said that Facebook told news executives it would pay as much as $3m to license article previews and headlines.
The report states the news section could launch this autumn – and help news publishers claw back some of the revenue they have lost to Facebook and Google, which, according to eMarketer, earned 60% of all digital advertising revenue in the US last year.
Such a move could also help Facebook address its fake news problem, which it has struggled to crack down on and for which it has been repeatedly criticised.
Campaign contacted Facebook but it had not responded at the time of writing.
(This article first appeared on CampaignLive.co.uk)
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