Facebook is rolling out a feature that lets you link your online news subscriptions to Facebook News. This will let you freely read articles on Facebook News from outlets you already subscribe to. Making paywalls less annoying.
Facebook News Makes Paywalls Less Annoying
Facebook News is a feed containing stories from thousands of different news outlets. It's personalized to your interests, and although it's currently only available for users in the US, Facebook News will soon be available in more countries.
Now, Facebook News is testing out a feature that will make it easier for news subscribers to bypass paywalls. If Facebook recognizes that you subscribe to a publication, it'll prompt you to link your subscription.
For example, if you subscribe to a specific publication, you'll get an invitation to link your account with Facebook. This lets you read that outlet's articles in Facebook News without having to keep signing into the site. It'll also prevent you from getting stuck behind paywalls.
In a Facebook Journalism Project blog post, the company notes that "linked subscribers of eligible publishers in the US will see more news stories from their publisher in their Facebook News experience." Access to a more customized News Feed makes linking your subscriptions even more worthwhile.
For now, Facebook is only trying out the feature with select publications. These include The Athletic, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Winnipeg Free Press.
The response from all three outlets has been positive thus far. In the same Journalism Project blog post, Christian Panson, the vice-president of digital at Winnipeg Free Press, commented on his experience with the new feature, saying:
Once a reader has linked their subscription, any visit to us from Facebook delivers a seamless and frictionless experience directly to the content they expect.
In a nutshell, this is good news for publications, as well as readers.
Bringing a Better News Experience to Facebook
Without a subscription-linking feature, using Facebook News becomes a hassle for digital news subscribers. The much-needed account linking feature will vastly improve user experience on Facebook News.
Regardless, you might still prefer to get your news from only a few sources. Facebook News might have stories from a variety of sources, but sometimes it's best to get your news from the sites you trust.