Yesterday, social media giant Facebook announced via a blog post on its website that it will invest $300 million in news programmes, partnerships and content over the next 3 years.
Facebook said the intervention was necessitated by the fact that people wanted more local news and the local news industries are seeking more support.
In an official comment on the blog, Campbell Brown, Vice President, Global News Partnerships said:
"There are two key areas where we hope to help: supporting local journalists and newsrooms with their news-gathering needs in the immediate future; and helping local news organisations build sustainable business models, through both our product and partnership work. Over time, we think this work can have the added benefit of fostering civic engagement, which research suggests is directly correlated with people’s reading of local news."
The first investment will be made in the United States and then expanded globally to Europe and other parts of the world.
Some of the first recipients of the investment will be; The Pulitzer Centre, Report For America, Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, Local Media Association (LMA) & Local Media Consortium (LMC), American Journalism Project, Community and News Project.
Facebook said apart from fighting fake news, misinformation, and low quality news on it platform, they also want to help local news organisations grow and thrive.
