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Advertising and Monetization with Facebook Instant Articles

Instant Articles is designed to give publishers control over the ads experience. Publishers can sell ads in their articles and keep the revenue or they can use Facebook's Audience Network to serve ads and earn an industry standard revenue share.

Using Direct-Sold Ads

Publishers can serve banner ads that have been sold directly by their own sales team into their Instant Articles. Publishers keep 100% of the revenue generate from ads they sell themselves.

To display banner ads in Instant Articles, use the Ad element to designate the position for the ad within your article. The ad will be served from your designated URL and will be rendered inside the article with the "Sponsored" heading, indicating to the reader that the content is an advertisement.

Specify the dimensions of the iframe to match the dimensions of the ad asset within. Facebook will resize the frame to be responsive to different screen dimensions and add buffer space around the ad consistent with your article style.

Serving

Ads can be served into your Instant Articles through your existing ad server implementation, including through Google's DFP solution.

Measurement

Since your ads are served into Instant Articles within an iframe and embedded web browser, you can employ your own existing techniques to measure and account for the viewability of these ads back to your advertisers. You may use Javascript to track and measure ad viewability for these ads in your Instant Articles.

Targeting

For ads sold directly by your team, you will not have access to Facebook targeting within Instant Articles. You may still use your standard cookie or contextual data for targeting as you do for ads on your website.

Using Facebook's Audience Network

In addition to serving ads that have been sold directly by your team, you can also incorporate ads fromAudience Network into your Instant Articles. Audience Network enables you to show people the right ads by extending Facebook's people based targeting to your article and gives you access to over 2 million advertisers.

Step 1: Sign up for Audience Network

Please contact your LiveRail representative for onboarding to Audience Network.

Step 2: Embed Audience Network ads

Once you are connected to Audience Network, create a placement in the Audience Network UI.

To embed Audience Network ad tags in your article, use the op-ad Embed type. These ads are served within a webview when a person reading your article taps on them.

In the following example, you would simply replace PLACEMENTID with the placement ID you generated from the Audience Network dashboard.

300x250 Audience Network Ad Sample

320x50 Audience Network Ad Sample

#facebook #instant articles #advertising #monetization #revenue #mobile #content #publishing #pagefrog

Facebook Instant Articles will Rank Higher than Standard Links

Will Facebook favor Facebook Instant Articles over standard links in News Feed ranking? This is Facebook's official answer:

"No. Instant Articles are ranked in News Feed by the same criteria that we use to rank standard articles on the mobile web. News Feed ranks stories based on a number of factors, including the amount people interact with them and how much time people spend reading them." — Facebook Instant Articles Team

This is actually somewhat of a misleading answer. Facebook Instant Articles and standard links are ranked by "the same criteria", but what's not mentioned is that Instant Articles inherently possess huge advantages within this "same criteria".

This "same criteria" involves several major factors including load times, engagements, and shares. The New York Times, for example, said their Instant Articles are being shared more than standard links they post to Facebook so far, in part because it loads faster on phones.

“That’s not really surprising. We’ve learned in mobile that performance matters,” — Kinsey Wilson, ‎editor for innovation and strategy at the New York Times.

Number of shares is one of the signals Facebook’s algorithm uses to rank stories in users’ news feeds, alongside other factors such as time spent with a piece of content. That means Instant Articles may soon receive greater exposure across Facebook’s service than standard links to other websites.

Publishers and marketers have experienced a similar dynamic with video on Facebook. Over time, Facebook’s algorithm began to favor content uploaded directly to its service over YouTube videos, for example. A similar scenario might play out with Instant Articles.

The same can be said of the Google AMP Project, which is Google's response to Facebook Instant Articles. Pages optimized for Google AMP load significantly faster, and Google has been using load times as an SEO ranking algorithm since 2010:

"Today we're including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed. Site speed reflects how quickly a website responds to web requests." — Google Webmaster Central, April 9, 2010

The Google AMP team also gave us a sneak preview of exactly how much faster AMP HTML pages are expected to be:

"So, how fast is AMP HTML? Pretty fast. In a sample of pages our early partners created we are seeing performance improvements measured through Speed Index between 15% and 85%." — Google AMP Team

So there you have it. On a technical level, it certainly seems that Facebook Instant Articles will be favored in News Feed ranking while Google AMP pages will be favored in SEO ranking. On a business level, it certainly makes sense for things to be that way as well. These companies may not openly admit to it, but these trends are heavily implied.

#facebook #instant articles #google amp #seo #news feed ranking #mobile #content #publishing

Facebook Instant Articles vs The Google AMP Project, Welcome to World War Web

Maybe you’ve heard of Facebook Instant Articles. Maybe you’ve even heard of the Google AMP Project. So what’s it all about?

Ever since this internet thing became popular, publishers have been struggling to adapt. We moved from print to digital and many publishers never survived the shift. Now we’re witnessing yet another shift; this time from desktop to mobile.

Fundamental difference between desktop and mobile

There was once a time when we were willing to wait 5 minutes for our dial-up modem to establish a connection. Once upon a time when we were willing to sit around and wait 30 seconds for a page to load, because it was all just so magical and so worth waiting for. That was the past and times have changed.

While browsing at home on a desktop computer, you may be sitting comfortable in a chair, browsing the web in search for information. With mobile, people are always on the go. They’re on busses, in tunnels, elevators, shopping malls, or jay walking across a busy street.

Mobile users can’t deal with the load times. They don’t have time to close your pop-ups and they don’t care about your fancy nav-bar that links to a dozen other pages. Mobile users are purpose-driven. They click on an article because the title promised something, and this promise needs to be delivered as quickly as possible.

The publishing industry will either die or evolve

The publishing industry relies on advertising for revenue. It has been this way since the beginning of time. Content is made free to consume, and advertisers pay for it to capture your eyeballs. Advertising is made available through inventory, which essentially comes down to page real estate.

With the rapid shift to mobile browsing, publishers suddenly lost a majority of available screen space. Less inventory means less revenue, but the costs of content creation remains unchanged.

Publishers that try to cram too many ad units on a mobile screen will quickly see the impact on engagement. People don’t have the time or attention to deal with flashy ads and pop-ups, especially not on mobile. It is so easy to hop from one article to another on mobile, and readers certainly will if the experience is unpleasant.

New devices demand new formats and new practices

Content consumption on mobile is all about speed and focus. Content needs to get to the point as quickly as possible, without distraction. Companies like Facebook and Google have tremendous data around mobile users and have already been building new content formats for publishers to embrace.

These new formats are designed to be content-focused and load times configured to be 10x faster than the traditional mobile web.

Facebook Instant Articles vs Google AMP Project

Facebook launched the first missile, igniting World War Web, with the announcement of Instant Articles:

Beyond just speed, Instant Articles allow publishers to provide the same high quality, fluid experience and interactivity that people expect from a mobile app. Instant Articles has been designed with extensive feedback from news publishers. Publishers can serve their own ads and keep that revenue, track readership in real-time and with comScore, and customize the presentation of articles to match their brand.

This is Facebook’s response to the mobile shift. By delivering content directly within the app and not relying on a mobile browser, Facebook can deliver load times 10x faster than before. By imposing customization restrictions on the Instant Articles format, such as no navigation and javascript objects, Facebook can maximize content engagement on within its app.

This is where Google gets worried. If Facebook controls content, then they also control the ads. Google is, above all, an ad company. In retaliation, Google launches the AMP Project.

The Accelerated Mobile Pages (“AMP”) Project is an open source initiative that came out of discussions between publishers and technology companies about the need to improve the entire mobile content ecosystem for everyone — publishers, consumer platforms, creators, and users.

Today, the expectation is that content should load super fast and be easy to explore. The reality is that content can take several seconds to load, or, because the user abandons the slow page, never fully loads at all. Accelerated Mobile Pages are web pages designed to load instantaneously — they are a step towards a better mobile web for all.

Just like what you’d expect in a World War, alliances are being made and territories drawn. Google naturally partnered with Twitter and LinkedIn, two social networks that certainly won’t benefit from Facebook taking over the future of mobile web. It has been announced that Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest will all support the new Google AMP content format.

However, Facebook seems to be leading the way in terms of actual publisher adoption, including:

Billboard, Billy Penn, The Blaze, Bleacher Report, Breitbart, Brit + Co, Business Insider, Bustle, CBS News, CBS Sports, CNET, Complex, Country Living, Cracked, Daily Dot, E! News, Elite Daily, Entertainment Weekly, Gannett, Good Housekeeping, Fox Sports, Harper’s Bazaar, Hollywood Life, Hollywood Reporter, IJ Review, Little Things, Mashable, Mental Floss, mindbodygreen, MLB, MoviePilot, NBA, NY Post, The Onion, Opposing Views, People, Pop Sugar, Rare, Refinery 29, Rolling Stone, Seventeen, TIME, Uproxx, US Magazine, USA Today, Variety, The Verge, The Weather Channel.

Of course, Apple joins the fray with its own Apple News format, but the specifications for Apple News are still relatively unknown.

How will this World War Web affect content publishers?

Competition in this space is good. If Facebook Instant Articles was the only option, then they would hold way too much power. Any single platform having too much control will always be bad for publishers. Retaliation from Google forces Facebook to remain reasonable and competitive with revenue sharing and other offers. The participation of Apple in the war will provide even more options for publishers.

Last but not least, publishers don’t actually have to choose between these options. More likely than not, publishers will end up embracing multiple, if not all of these formats. These are responsive formats, meaning you don’t have to actually publish original content on each of these platforms. It simply means that your articles will load differently depending on where it’s accessed.

You would publish your article the same way you always do, on your website. Except when accessed on Facebook, it would trigger the Facebook Instant Article version of your article; when accessed on Twitter, it would trigger the Google AMP version; likewise with Apple News and so forth.

These new formats are creating possibilities for new methods of engagement, new forms of advertising, and new opportunities for publishers to grow and evolve.

#facebook instant articles #google amp #apple news #mobile #content #publishing

72 Hours With Facebook Instant Articles

The feature, which hosts news stories on the company’s servers, is already changing how Robinson Meyer uses the social network, as he shares on The Atlantic.

On Tuesday, Facebook debuted its long-awaited Instant Articles feature to all users of its iPhone app. Now, when someone taps a story in their News Feed from a select group of publications — including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and The Atlantic — they access a version stored directly on Facebook’s servers, not on the publication’s own. The company has started to test the feature on Android phones as well.

With the formal release of the feature, Facebook formally ends one era in the platform wars and begins another.

Since August 2013, when it adjusted the algorithm of its News Feed to favor “quality content,” Facebook has been the major referrer to news sites — either the fastest-growing or the just-plain biggest. Over the summer, the analytics company Parsely said that its proprietary data confirmed thatFacebook now directs more traffic to news sites than Google. “The list is a lot longer than is publicly known of those that have Facebook delivering half to two-thirds of their traffic right now,” said Justin Smith, the CEO of Bloomberg Media, in February of this year.

And for almost as long as Facebook has been funneling free attention to news sites, there’s been a rumor that it wanted to go and straight-up host the content, too. There have been whispers of this intent since the summer of 2014; the late, great Times reporter David Carr was the first to actually report them almost exactly a year ago. The 12 months since have been stop-and-start: Buzzfeed and the Times itself would participate in the feature, we learned in March. Then we heard nothing for a while. Then Facebook began testing the feature, named “Instant Articles,” in May. Then we heard nothing for a longer while. And then, about three weeks ago, it began to trickle out to iPhone users. Now it’s fully deployed.

David Carr’s original précis — that hosting stories on the social network’s servers would make publications “serfs in a kingdom that Facebook owns” — has stuck to Instant Articles since the beginning. And ever-wary publishers have been especially skeptical of Facebook’s insistence that the feature is necessary because news sites are, as a category, too slow. (Facebook says it takes an average of eight seconds to load each page.)

I think to many publishers, this just didn’t make sense, because even if they think of website speed as a responsibility, it’s not a core concern. Telling publishers their site is too slow feels like telling a classical cellist that they take too long to start playing after walking on stage. The cellist could imagine the long pause affecting the listener, sure, but if the music’s good enough, why care? As the audience walks out of the concert hall that night, will they remember the brilliant conclusion or the eight seconds of initial silence?

Maybe now that there has been an industry-wide revolt against page loading speeds (it took the form of ad-blockers), publishers know better. But what has struck me about the first three days of using Instant Articles is that my behavior has already significantly changed to account for the speed boost. Posts of an Instant Article have a little lightning-bolt icon in the corner; I already find myself looking for that icon to decide whether to open a story. If it’s there, I figure there’s no opportunity cost, so I tap recklessly (“how bad could it be?”), the page loads more or less immediately, and I read it. If it’s not there, I go through a little mental routine of making sure that I really, really do want to read the story — and then, even though I know I’m going to pay the loading tax, I groan after I tap and that blank page appears.

Facebook has made an “open standard” that makes it easier for other publishers to adopt Instant Articles. According to Facebook, the list of news sites about to join the feature includes:

That this list includes Billy Penn, a local Philadelphia news site, and the IJ Review,a conservative aggregator, and two professional American sports leagues, tells you a great deal about the feature’s imminent ubiquity. Very soon, every digital publisher, journalistic or non, that wants to be a serious online player will host a large portion of their content on Facebook’s servers. The Instant Articles is just too good to resist, and I think the penalty for resisting will be too high. And then we all, Facebook and the media sector alike, will have to deal with the consequences — whether the comparisons to feudalism are correct or not.

#facebook #instant articles #mobile #content #publishing #response #reaction

How to Format a Facebook Instant Article

Facebook Instant Articles are created with HTML5, so specifying page elements is done in a way that’s similar to standard web publishing. In many cases, publishers can reuse code created for their web-based articles to generate versions that work as Instant Articles.

1. Required Article Elements

Every Instant Articles requires some basic information to specify how the article should be presented to readers. This metadata is defined in the <head> of the HTML document, and it includes information such as the canonical URL (which ties the Instant Article back to its web-based counterpart) and the specific style that should be applied to the content.

A canonical link is required in the <head> of every Instant Article, and this must be an absolute URL. If this URL is not present, Facebook will display the canonical link defined for the <item> in your RSS feed. If a canonical link is not provided in either the article’s<head>or in the RSS feed, Facebook will ignore the article.

For additional detail on how to set up article-level configurations of your Instant Article, refer to theInstant Articles Format Reference.

2. Specifying The Article Cover

When readers first open an Instant Article, they see an article “cover” which acts as a visual header for the body content. The cover of each Instant Article is specified by the elements in the <header> section of the <article> block, which lives in the <body> of the HTML document. These elements include:

Media type: Image, Video or Slideshow

Title

Subtitle

Author(s)

Kicker

Published Time

Modified Time

<body> <article> <header>  <figure> <img src="http://mydomain.com/path/to/img.jpg" /> <figcaption>This image is amazing</figcaption> </figure>  <h1> Title </h1> <h2> Subtitle </h2>  <details> <summary>Kicker</summary> This is a kicker </details>  <address> <a rel="facebook" href="http://facebook.com/brandon.diamond">Brandon Diamond</a> Brandon is a avid zombie hunter. </address>  <time class="op-published" dateTime="2014-12-11T04:44:16Z">December 11th, 4:44 PM</time> <time class="op-modified" dateTime="2014-12-11T04:44:16Z">December 11th, 4:44 PM</time> </header> </article> </body>

For additional detail on how to configure the cover of an Instant Article, refer to the Instant Articles Format Reference.

3. Body Content Formatting

The standard HTML elements that define the body elements of your web-based articles also define the corresponding elements for the Instant Article version. Body text in your article is defined using <p>tags, while image and video content is defined using <figure>elements.

<body> <article>  <p> This is some Instant Article content. </p>  <figure> <video> <source src="http://mydomain.com/path/to/video.mp4" type="video/mp4" /> </video> </figure>  <figure> <img src="http://mydomain.com/path/to/img.jpg" /> <figcaption>This image is amazing</figcaption> </figure> </article> </body>

4. Creating Rich-Media Elements

In addition to standard article body text, Instant Articles also provide support for rich media elements, such as likes and comments on media, audio captions, and interactive maps. These elements are implemented with simple HTML5, and they are implemented natively within Instant Articles to provide a crisp reader experience. Special elements include:

Slideshows

Audio Captions

Interactive Maps

Geotagged Media

Likes and Comments on Media

<body> <article>  <figure class="op-slideshow"> <figure> <img src="http://mydomain.com/path/to/img1.jpg" /> </figure> <figure> <img src="http://mydomain.com/path/to/img2.jpg" /> </figure> <figure> <img src="http://mydomain.com/path/to/img3.jpg" /> </figure> </figure>  <figure> <img src="http://mydomain.com/path/to/img.jpg"> <audio title="audio title"> <source src="http://foo.com/mp3"> </audio> </figure>  <figure class="op-map"> <script type="application/json" class="op-geotag"> { "type": "Feature", "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ [23.166667, 89.216667], [23.166667, 89.216667] ] }, "properties": { "title": "Jessore, Bangladesh", "radius": 750000, "pivot": true, "style": "satellite", } } </script> </figure>  <figure> <img src="http://mydomain.com/path/to/img.jpg" /> <script type="application/json" class="op-geotag"> { "type": "Feature", "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ [23.166667, 89.216667], [23.166667, 89.216667] ] }, "properties": { "title": "Jessore, Bangladesh", "radius": 750000, "pivot": true, "style": "satellite", } } </script> </figure>  <figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"> <img src="http://foo.com/1.jpg"/> <figcaption>Image caption</figcaption> </figure> </article> </body>

5. Adding Embedded Media

You can embed external media directly within your Instant Article. External media may include interactive graphics from your website, content from social networks or advertisements. Embedded content is defined using the standard HTML5 <figure>element, with specific classes provided for different types of content, as shown here:

6. Configuring A News Feed Preview

When a reader encounters your Instant Article in Facebook’s News Feed, they are shown a preview of the article (in much the same way article previews are shown in News Feed for the web version of articles). By default, the News Feed preview for an Instant Article displays with the same title, description, and image as the web-based version of your article. This information is defined using theOpen Graph meta tags located in the <head> of the web version of your article.

This information is not defined directly in the markup for the Instant Articles version of the article. It must exist in the web version of your article.

You can choose to replace the default News Feed preview image with a video that’s included as part of your Instant Article. To do this, add the fb-feed-cover class to anyVideo <figure> within the article’s <body>. The title and description for the preview will still match the preview for your web-based article, and they will be taken from the Open Graph meta tags defined on the web version of your article.

#facebook #instant articles #html #formatting #mobile #content #publishing #optimization

Facebook Instant Articles, for Dummies

More people read news on mobile devices than ever before. More people read news on Facebook than ever before. Now Facebook has taken a big step towards solving some of the biggest challenges in publishing.

What’s wrong with publishing?

People have far less patience on mobile than they do on web. Not to mention, articles take far longer to load on mobile than on web. This is a recipe for disaster. People leave before the page loads, pages get less views, less advertising revenue, and the publishing business suffers.

With the release of iOS9, iPhones can now install “content blockers” (a.k.a. Ad Blockers). Ad Blockers are tools that (you guessed it) block ads. Most articles are available for free, but they’re not free to produce. Ad revenue sustains the publishing business. Ad Blockers kill the publishing business. Ad Blockers on web was troublesome enough, but now with Ad Blockers on mobile, the looming threat grows.

What’s Facebook’s solution?

They call it Instant Articles. Instead of loading articles through an in-app mobile browser, Facebook loads the articles in the app itself. Instead of fetching the article through a browser, Facebook caches the content and loads articles directly in-app. It all happens inside the app without any browsers. This means significantly faster load times; some may even say “instant”.

Faster load times lead to lower bounce rates, more engagements, and of course, more ad revenue. What about Ad Blockers? Well this solves that too. Mobile content blockers only work with mobile browsers. Since Facebook Instant Articles load inside the app without a browser, you can’t block ads.

Should I start publishing Instant Articles?

First things first, you keep 100% of your own ad revenue. Facebook displays your ads, and you keep the money. Of course, Facebook encourages you to use their ad network to fill any unsold inventory, but it’s not mandatory.

You’ll also have to be comfortable with giving up a bit of control. Instant Articles offer limited customization options. This means no nav bars and no pop ups. Be prepared to give up everything but the content. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since most of that other stuff is what makes mobile web annoying.

What if I choose not to join?

Your articles will continue to load in a mobile browser, your ads would continue to be blocked by mobile content blockers, and your load time will probably be significantly slower than Instant Articles.

The larger implication is that your articles may lose visibility. Facebook News Feed has a ranking algorithm (kind of like Facebook SEO) that determines the visibility of your content. If your articles load slower than others and get less engagements, then they’re less likely to appear.

How can I publish Instant Articles?

Facebook is currently cherry picking publishers to work with. You can express your interests in becoming an Instant Articles publisher by filling out this form, but that’s about it.

The program is expected to eventually go public, but you don’t have to wait until then to take action. Facebook has already released documentations around how you can optimize your content for Instant Articles.

Go get a head start! Optimize your content for Instant Articles now so that when the program goes public, you’ll be ahead of the game.

#facebook #instant articles #for dummies #introduction #basics #mobile #content #publishing

How to Publish for Facebook Instant Articles

Automated Publishing

To provide a reliable Facebook Instant Articles experience when readers tap links to your articles on Facebook, an Instant Article version of each article must be created whenever a new article URL is published to your website.

Instant Articles support syndication using a secure RSS feed. This feed can integrate seamlessly with your existing workflow if new stories are automatically syndicated as Instant Articles whenever you publish them from your regular content management system.

You should only publish new stories via your Instant Articles RSS feed when they are also publicly available on your website. The Instant Articles system requires access to each article’s standard web URL to render the content properly.

Detailed guidance on Instant Articles markup conventions is provided in the Instant Articles Format Reference. Here’s how to begin automated publishing:

1. Create an RSS feed

To enable automated publishing of your Instant Articles, configure your content management system to generate an RSS feed which contains the full content of each article in Instant Articles markup.

Each article in this RSS feed must be represented as an <item> and should include a set of elements that contain the article content and all relevant metadata. While not all elements are required, it’s best to include the entire set of elements to provide as much context to your Instant Articles as possible.

2. Connect the RSS feed to your Facebook Page

Specify the RSS feed that will distribute your content to Facebook through the Admin settings for your Facebook Page. From the top of your Page, click Settings, then selectInstant Articles from the menu on the left of the screen.

Though optional, we suggest configuring basic authentication (username and password) for your RSS feed and serving it with SSL/TLS (i.e. via HTTPS) if you want your feed to be private.

You can specify a username and password for your feed on the Settings page. Facebook will encrypt and store these internally for use when publishing your content.

You can configure your RSS feed to automatically provide readers on Instant Articles-enabled devices with the content in Instant Article form. Use the auto-publish checkbox to turn this feature on or off. When auto-publish is disabled (unchecked), all new articles received from your RSS feed are stored as unpublished drafts until you manually publish them through your Page admin dashboard.

3. Verify your feed is being ingested properly

Once you’ve connected your RSS feed to your Facebook Page, Facebook will pull stories from your RSS feed into the Instant Articles system. If any errors are found in your RSS feed, they will be displayed on the RSS configuration screen in the settings for your Facebook Page. RSS feed errors must be resolved before proceeding.

If no RSS feed errors are reported, ensure that your articles are populating the Instant Articles library for your Facebook Page. From the top of your Page, click Publishing Toolsand then select Instant Articles from the menu on the left of the screen. The Instant Articles library looks like this:

4. Updating published articles

At times you may need to update the content of a previously published article, as in the case of a developing news story. To automatically specify an article that should be updated and republished, its HTML must include the op-published and op-modified <time>elements, and the updated article must be redistributed via your RSS feed.

Facebook pulls your RSS feed every three minutes to determine if any of your Instant Articles content needs to be refreshed. An article will be updated and republished if the op-modified date in article in the RSS feed is more recent than the op-modified date on the existing article in your library.

There are a few limitations to be aware of when it comes to updating articles that have been previously published:

Facebook only pulls a maximum of 100 items that are new or modified since the last pull. If you are adding or changing more than 100 items every three minutes, the Instant Articles system will only update the first 100 items, sorted by modified time, with the most recent appearing first.

If an update to an existing Instant Article is more than 24 hours old based on its op-modifiedtime, it will be ignored by the pull. For example, if your feed is pulled at 12:00pm on October 8th and an article in your feed with the op-modified time set to 11:59am on October 7th, it will be ignored.

If you attempt to update an existing article through your RSS feed and the update is ignored, Facebook will continue to display the most recent version of the article in the Instant Articles system. Changes to published Instant Articles that are more than one day old can be implemented manually, via the web-based Instant Articles editor tool accessible from your Facebook Page.

Media assets associated with an RSS item will only update if the URL of the media asset has changed.

5. Ensure Facebook Crawler can reach your content

To properly distribute your content to Instant Articles, ensure your content is visible to our crawler. If you normally restrict access to your content, you’ll need to whitelist our crawler. Please refer to ourFacebook Crawler guide for advice on how to identify our crawler and preferred approaches to whitelisting.

Sample RSS feed

This is an example of an RSS 2.0 feed optimized for Instant Articles:

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"> <channel> <title>News Publisher</title> <link>http://www.example.com/</link> <description> Read our awesome news, every day. </description> <language>en-us</language> <lastBuildDate>2014-12-11T04:44:16Z</lastBuildDate> <item> <title>This is an Instant Article</title> <link>http://www.example.com/human-friendly-article-link</link> <guid>2fd4e1c67a2d28fced849ee1bb76e7391b93eb12</guid> <pubDate>2014-12-11T04:44:16Z</pubDate> <author>Mr. Author</author> <description>This is my first Instant Article. How awesome is this?</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ (The full content of your article, in HTML form.) ]]></content:encoded> </item> </channel> </rss>

#facebook #instant articles #publishing #automation #tutorial #guide #basics #howto

How will Analytics work with Facebook Instant Articles?

Does Facebook Instant Articles support content and audience analytics?

Facebook Instant Articles supports comScore attribution, so comScore is notified each time an article view happens on Facebook. Publishers can also use their existing web-based analytics systems to track article traffic, or use third-party providers like Google Analytics or Omniture. Facebook is in discussion with European attribution and measurement providers to provide the similar solutions for EMEA partners.

How does Facebook Instant Articles influence referral traffic?

Instant Articles lets people read publishers’ content within the app. In other words, when people read Instant Articles, they no longer visit publishers’ websites directly. Facebook worked with comScore to enable publishers to count Instant Article views in the app as regular traffic to the publisher, just as on the mobile web.

What kind of readership data does Facebook provide?

Instant Articles allows publishers to track reader-engagement with Facebook’s own content analytics tools. Along with aggregate activity data, Facebook provides publishers with information on article reach and engagement, time spent in each article, scroll-depth and engagement with rich media assets like photos and videos. As with all of Facebook’s data products, no personally identifiable information is shared with third-parties, including publishers.

Can Facebook Instant Articles provide more specific data around users’ geography, interests, age, gender, education, household income?

Facebook’s Page and Domain Insights provide data on age, gender, language, and geography breakdown of traffic to your page and domain, both web and native, on an aggregate basis. Facebook’s goal is to provide the same data that publishers are used to having about visitors on the mobile web.

#facebook #instant articles #analytics #data #faq #qna

How to Create a Basic AMP HTML Page

Learn how to create a basic AMP HTML page, stage it, test it, and get it ready for publication.

Write the basic AMP HTML page

The basic AMP HTML page includes the following mark-up:

<!doctype html> <html amp lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Hello, AMPs</title> <link rel="canonical" href="http://example.ampproject.org/article-metadata.html" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,minimum-scale=1,initial-scale=1"> <script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Open-source framework for publishing content everywhere", "datePublished": "2015-10-07T12:02:41Z", "image": [ "logo.jpg" ] } </script> <style>body {opacity: 0}</style><noscript><style>body {opacity: 1}</style></noscript> <script async src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js"></script> </head> <body> <h1>Welcome to the mobile web</h1> </body> </html>

Required mark-up

AMP HTML documents MUST

start with the doctype <!doctype html>.

contain a top-level <html > tag (<html amp> is accepted as well).

contain <head> and <body> tags (They are optional in HTML).

contain a <link rel="canonical" href="$SOME_URL" /> tag inside their head that points to the regular HTML version of the AMP HTML document or to itself if no such HTML version exists.

contain a <meta charset="utf-8"> tag as the first child of their head tag.

contain a <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,minimum-scale=1"> tag inside their head tag. It’s also recommended to include initial-scale=1.

contain a <script async src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js"></script> tag as the last element in their head.

contain <style>body {opacity: 0}</style><noscript><style>body {opacity: 1}</style></noscript> in their head tag.

Most HTML tags can be used unchanged in AMP HTML. Certain tags have equivalent custom AMP HTML tags; other HTML tags are outright banned (see HTML Tags in the specification).

Include an image

Content pages include more features than just the content. To get you started, here’s the basic AMP HTML page now with an image:

<!doctype html> <html AMP lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Hello, AMPs</title> <link rel="canonical" href="http://example.ampproject.org/article-metadata.html" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,minimum-scale=1,initial-scale=1"> <script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Open-source framework for publishing content everywhere", "datePublished": "2015-10-07T12:02:41Z", "image": [ "logo.jpg" ] } </script> <style>body {opacity: 0}</style><noscript><style>body {opacity: 1}</style></noscript> <script async src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js"></script> </head> <body> <h1>Welcome to the mobile web</h1> <amp-img src="welcome.jpg" alt="Welcome" height="2000" width="800"></amp-img> </body> </html>

Learn more about how to include common features.

Add some styles

AMPs are web pages; add custom styling using common CSS properties.

Style elements inside <style amp-custom> using class or element selectors in an author-defined, inlined stylesheet:

<!doctype html> <html AMP lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Hello, AMPs</title> <link rel="canonical" href="http://example.ampproject.org/article-metadata.html" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,minimum-scale=1,initial-scale=1"> <script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Open-source framework for publishing content everywhere", "datePublished": "2015-10-07T12:02:41Z", "image": [ "logo.jpg" ] } </script> <style>body {opacity: 0}</style><noscript><style>body {opacity: 1}</style></noscript> <style amp-custom> /* any custom style goes here; and remember, body margin can not be declared */ body { background-color: white; } amp-img { background-color: gray; } </style> <script async src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js"></script> </head> <body> <h1>Welcome to the mobile web</h1> <amp-img src="welcome.jpg" alt="Welcome" height="2000" width="800"></amp-img> </body> </html>

Learn more about adding elements, including extended components, in How to Include Common Features.

Page layout

Externally-loaded resources (like images, ads, videos, etc.) must have height and width attributes. This ensures that sizes of all elements can be calculated by the browser via CSS automatically and element sizes won’t be recalculated because of external resources, preventing the page from jumping around as resources load.

Moreover, use of the style attribute for tags is not permitted, as this optimizes impact rendering speed in unpredictable ways.

Learn more in the AMP HTML Components specification.

Test the page

Test the page by viewing the page in your local server and validating the page using theChrome DevTools console.

Include your page in your local directory, for example,/ampproject/amphtml/examples.

Get your web server up and running locally. For a quick web server, run python -m SimpleHTTPServer.

Open your page, for example, go to http://localhost:8000/released.amp.html.

Add “#development=1” to the URL, for example,http://localhost:8000/released.amp.html#development=1.

Open the Chrome DevTools console and check for validation errors.

Final steps before publishing

Congrats! You’ve tested your page locally and fixed all validation errors.

Learn more about tools that can help you get your content production ready in Set Up Your Build Tools.

#google #amp #tutorial #amp page #html

Contributors Comment on the Google AMP Project

great user experience, to give more autonomy to publishers to deliver that and to develop effective advertising for the mobile web. Achieving these in tandem will be vital to building a more sustainable ecosystem where great journalism can flourish. We are keen to see it succeed.”

Tony Danker Chief Strategy Officer, Guardian News & Media

“Speed has always been a cornerstone of Google Search and we’re thrilled to be working alongside others in the tech industry and publishers around the world to bring the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project to life. An open content ecosystem will give publishers maximum reach and allow users to get the best content no matter which app they are using. AMP HTML will make it all blazing fast, so we can’t wait to use it!”

David Besbris VP Engineering, Google Search

“At Vox Media, we want our users to have the best experience possible on whatever device or platform they choose, and we have always believed in benefiting and contributing to open web projects. We’re proud to partner with other media and technology companies to create a standardized approach to web publishing that allows our mobile users the most consistent, fast, accessible, and high-quality experience possible.”

Melissa Bell VP, Growth and Analytics, Vox Media and co-founder of Vox.com

“Speed is a key part of delivering great mobile experiences for Hearst’s premium content — this initiative is a way to improve the mobile experience for users while allowing publishers the flexibility to design the experience and the product in a way that supports its business requirements for data, analytics and monetization.”

Phil Wiser CTO, Hearst

“We are thrilled to be working alongside Google and other industry leaders to create a better mobile web experience inside of all apps, by partnering with publishers, we are helping them achieve their goals and tell stories with Tweets.”

Michael Ducker Product Manager, Twitter

“As third party mobile platforms become increasingly important, this initiative has the potential to reduce the effort required to distribute content to those platforms, deliver a better user experience and keep economic control in the hands of publishers.”

Kinsey Wilson EVP, Product & Technology, The New York Times

“On mobile devices, the display of news articles listed by Google shall improve significantly. That’s one of the first results of the Digital News Initiative instigated by Google and eight European publishing companies. We expect this project to considerably boost usage of our mobile pages. We will carefully watch how the initiative can contribute toward increasing advertising revenues. The key will be to improve the publishing business in the context of the digital world.”

Mathias Müller von Blumencron Editor in Chief, FAZ.NET

“The mobile open web experience is terrible and some have suggested it’s too slow to compete. We can choose to see the mobile open web as a relic of its time and flee to the warm embrace of closed platforms and apps. Or we can say that the open web means something important to the world and if it’s broken it’s our job to fix it. I think we should fix it. That’s why Chartbeat is proud to be a part of the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project. It’s our attempt to fix the mobile experience, make it fast and beautiful, and ensure the future of an open web.”

Tony Haile CEO, Chartbeat

“Once we used to talk about digital first, or mobile first. This was the past. Today legacy media need to bring their journalism outside their websites, on the platforms and on the devices where people are. La Stampa is almost 150 years old. We believe in quality and trust. Combining them with a great user experience will make our journalism thrive for the next 150 years. This is why we are part of the project.”

Mario Calabresi Editor in Chief, La Stampa

“We welcome this project because it accelerates the consumption of mobile content and preserves the business model that finances quality journalism.”

Antonio Manuel Teixeira Mendes Director-Superintendent, Folha de S.Paulo

#google amp #accelerated mobile pages #comments #industry experts #opinion #testimonials

Publishing Facebook Instant Articles, Q&A

What types of articles work best as Facebook Instant Articles?

Facebook Instant Articles work for any type of article, from daily coverage to long-form, in-depth features.

Do publishers need to create original content for Facebook?

No. Facebook Instant Articles provides a faster, Facebook-native way to distribute the content publishers already produce for their own websites. Every article published as an Instant Article must be published on a news publisher’s website as well. That means when someone shares an Instant Article by email or on Twitter, they also share a link to the publisher’s website.

Why is it a requirement that Instant Articles content must also appear on a publisher’s own website?

Facebook Instant Articles are only available on Facebook’s mobile app. Having a standard web URL that links to a web-based version of the content ensures that shared links to Instant Articles discovered on Facebook remain accessible to any reader on any platform. Without a standard, web-based URL, the article would only be readable via Facebook’s mobile app.

How much work does it take to format content for Instant Articles?

We tried to make it as easy as possible for publishers to produce Facebook Instant Articles. After some basic setup, publishers can automate Instant Article production directly from their own content management systems via RSS. Facebook also provides tools so publishers can see all the items in their Facebook publishing feed and edit or revise content manually. In addition, Facebook provides tools for publishers to preview articles before publication.

Are Instant Articles favored in News Feed ranking?

No. Instant Articles are ranked in News Feed by the same criteria that we use to rank standard articles on the mobile web. News Feed ranks stories based on a number of factors, including the amount people interact with them and how much time people spend reading them.

Do Instant Articles change how publishers or people share on Facebook?

No. Nothing about link-sharing on Facebook changes. Publishers and readers link to articles just as they always have; there’s no need to do anything differently for an Instant Article. Each Instant Article is associated with a URL link, so when a friend or Page shares a link in News Feed, readers on Facebook see the Instant Article version if it is available.

Do Instant Articles impact organic reach on Facebook?

No, Instant Articles are treated like any other stories publishers post to Facebook.

How does Instant Articles influence referral traffic?

Instant Articles lets people read publishers’ content within the Facebook app. In other words, when people read Instant Articles, they no longer visit publishers’ websites directly. Facebook worked with comScore to enable publishers to count Instant Article views in the Facebook app as regular traffic to the publisher, just as on the mobile web.

What kind of readership data does Facebook provide?

Can Instant Articles provide more specific data around users’ geography, interests, age, gender, education, household income?

#facebook #instant articles #mobile #content #publishing #basics #information #tutorial #guide

The 5 W’s of Google AMP

What

Why

Speed matters and instant is the ideal. Research shows that the bounce rate can be as high as 58% for web pages that take nearly ten seconds to load. Using the AMP format will make it far more compelling for people to consume and engage with more content. But this isn’t just about speed and performance. We also want to promote enhanced distribution so that publishers can take advantage of the open web’s potential for their content to appear everywhere quickly — across all platforms and apps — which can lead to more revenue via ads and subscriptions.

Where

Accelerated Mobile Pages are just like any other HTML page, but with a limited set of allowed technical functionality that is defined and governed by the open source AMP spec. Just like all web pages, Accelerated Mobile Pages will load in any modern browser or app webview. AMP files take advantage of various technical and architectural approaches that prioritize speed to provide a faster experience for users. The goal is not to homogenize how content looks and feels, but instead to build a more common technical core between pages that speeds up load times.

Who

The project is open to all players in the ecosystem – publishers, consumer platforms, and creators. In this early stage of the project, a group of publishers and platforms have come together to demonstrate how Accelerated Mobile Pages can transform the mobile web experience. They include platforms like Twitter and Google, tech players like ChartBeat and WordPress.com and publishers like Vox, The New York Times, The Guardian and Globo.

When

On October 7th, 2015, the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project announced the release of the initial technical specification which will appear on GitHub, a broadly used repository for open-source content. We are also providing an early developer demo of what a faster mobile web can look and feel like with Accelerated Mobile Pages. More features and functionality will be added over the coming weeks, including functional support for subscription models as well as vendor support for advertising functionality. As more of this functionality becomes commonly available, we hope to see more and more major consumer platforms integrating AMP pages into their apps and services.

How

Since “AMP HTML” is built entirely out of existing web technologies, the development process mirrors the one publishers are already using today. Publishers can familiarize themselves with the AMP HTML specification on GitHub. For those used to the current process, we don’t expect a significant learning curve.

#google #amp #accelerated mobile pages #mobile #content #publishing #basics #howto #tutorial #guide

The 5 W’s of Facebook Instant Articles

What

Instant Articles is a tool for news publishers to distribute fast, interactive articles to their readers in the Facebook app.

Why

There are several benefits for publishers. Faster article loading allows readers to get to content as quickly as possible. Facebook’s experience with other media formats, such as auto-play video, has been that more rapid content loading generates increased content consumption and sharing. We believe Instant Articles will help publishers grow their businesses on Facebook.

Who

Facebook is currently testing Instant Articles with a small set of publishers. The Instant Articles program will expand to more publishers in the future.

Where

For the moment, Instant Articles are only available to people who use Facebook’s iPhone app.

When

May 12, 2015 Facebook announced the Instant Articles Initiative. September 22, 2015 Facebook released documentation for publishers and tool providers. October 20, 2015 Facebook launched Instant Articles for everyone on iPhone.

How

It’s a straightforward process for publishers to publish their articles in the Instant Article format because it uses HTML and RSS, standard ways for authoring articles on the web. Facebook translates articles authored for the web in HTML into the Instant Articles format. We also provide tools for publishers to preview articles prior to publication and make sure they display as they intended. Publishers who wish to embrace new elements like interactive maps and auto-play videos can use simple, well-documented HTML tags to enhance their content with rich-media features.

#facebook #instant articles #basics #tutorials #faq #mobile #content #publishing

Facebook Instant Articles, FAQ

What is Instant Articles?

Instant Articles is a tool for news publishers to distribute fast, interactive articles to their readers in the Facebook app.

How do Instant Articles work?

Rather than loading an article using a web browser, which takes over 8 seconds on average, Instant Articles load using the same fast tools we use to load photos and videos in the Facebook app allowing articles to load as much as 10 times faster than standard mobile web articles. Beyond just speed, Instant Articles allow publishers to provide the same high quality, fluid experience and interactivity that people expect from a mobile app. Instant Articles has been designed with extensive feedback from news publishers. Publishers can serve their own ads and keep that revenue, track readership in real-time and with comScore, and customize the presentation of articles to match their brand.

Will Instant Articles be required for publishers on Facebook moving forward?

No. Publishers have the option to participate in the Instant Articles program. Participating publishers retain full control of their content and publishing schedule, including how much to publish to Facebook. Standard article links will remain accessible from Facebook via the standard mobile browser for publishers that decline to participate. Our expectation is that people on Facebook will appreciate the enhanced accessibility of Instant Articles content, while publishers will see greater engagement for their content as a result.

Why would publishers want to participate in Instant Articles?

Do publishers need to create original content for Facebook?

No. Instant Articles is simply a faster, mobile-optimized way to publish and distribute stories on Facebook, and it supports automated content syndication using standards like HTML and RSS. Content published as Instant Articles will also be published on the publishers’ websites.

How much effort is required for publishers to reconfigure their content for Instant Articles?

What types of articles work best for this format?

Instant Articles work for any type of article, from daily spot-news coverage to in-depth, longform features.

Do Instant Articles change how publishers or people share on Facebook?

No. Nothing about link-sharing changes. Publishers and readers link to articles just as they always have; there is no need to link or post an Instant Article differently. Each Instant Article is associated with a link, so when a friend or page shares a link in News Feed, readers see the Instant Article version if it is available.

Are Instant Articles available to everyone on Facebook?

For the moment, Instant Articles are only available to people who use Facebook’s iPhone app.

What happens if a reader is not on a device that supports Instant Articles?

People on a desktop computer or other device that doesn’t support Instant Articles will continue to link to the mobile web version of the article.

How will Instant Articles influence referral traffic?

Instant Articles display within the Facebook app, so readers no longer redirect to the publisher’s website. Facebook worked with publishers and comScore to enable Instant Articles views in Facebook’s app to count as traffic to the original publisher, just as they do on the mobile web.

Can publishers sell their own advertising on Instant Articles?

Yes. Publishers can sell in their articles and keep the revenue, or they can choose to use Facebook’s Audience Network to monetize unsold inventory.

How do publishers enroll to use Instant Articles?

Facebook is currently testing Instant Articles with a small set of publishers. The Instant Articles program will expand to more publishers in the future. If would like to participate, please tell us about yourself and we’ll keep you updated.

#facebook #instant articles #faq #tutorial #guide #help #basics #mobile #publishing #optimization #traffic

Facebook Instant Articles, explained by Vox

Facebook has a problem, or thinks it does: reading news stories from Facebook’s mobile app doesn’t work very well. The company says the average news article takes eight seconds to launch — time in which a bored mobile user might give up and open another application altogether.

Facebook wants to change that. So today the company announced a new partnership with some of the nation’s most prestigious publications, including the New York Times, National Geographic, and the Atlantic, where Facebook will actively host entire articles on behalf of news organizations.

Facebook’s hope is that this will drastically improve article loading times, particularly on mobile devices. The company is also offering ways for publishers to improve the display of images and video.

But even as major news organizations participate in the partnership, journalists are worried that the deal will give Facebook too much power over the news business. Fusion’s Felix Salmon, for example, wrote in March that if news organizations signed up with Facebook, they risked “losing most of the things which make [a] news brand memorable and unique.”

How will Facebook’s deal with publishers affect ordinary users?

The main thing users will notice — if they notice anything at all — is that articles from certain media organizations start loading more quickly than they did before.

In the past, when a Facebook user on a smartphone clicked on a link to a news story, it would open a separate browser window and begin downloading an entire webpage. In the new model, publishers upload copies of their articles to Facebook so they can be hosted on Facebook’s servers. This allows Facebook to optimize how the articles are delivered to Facebook.

Facebook hasn’t provided a lot of details on the technology behind the product, but what looks to be happening is Facebook is pre-loading the article’s content so that it’s already on the device when a user clicks a link. Right now, Facebook Instant Articles are only available for iOS, but an Android version is expected soon.

The resulting speed increase is dramatic:

But aside from this speed increase, users probably won’t notice much difference. Facebook is touting several other features, such as the ability to zoom in on images and autoplay videos, but it’s not clear how often publishers will take advantage of these features.

Why are publishers doing this?

(Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Publishers have grown dependent on traffic from Facebook, and Facebook has a lot of discretion to decide which content is featured in its users’ news feed. This fact gives Facebook a lot of leverage. Some publishers fear that if they don’t participate, Facebook will point its firehose of traffic in the direction of more pliant competitors.

At the same time, the program offers some benefits for publishers as well. Faster loading times are good for publishers as much as they are for Facebook. And joining Facebook Instant Articles gives publishers access to Facebook’s powerful advertising program. Facebook knows a lot about its users, and this data allows them to target ads at users who are most likely to be interested in them. That’s good for advertisers, who are able to get a bigger impact from fewer ads.

Facebook-hosted articles can have Facebook-hosted ads next to them, and Facebook will give publishers 70 percent of the revenue generated with these Facebook ads. If Facebook’s ad platform is good enough, publishers may find that 70 percent of the money from a Facebook ad is worth more than 100 percent of an ad they sell themselves.

Facebook made a few other concessions to coax publishers to get on board. First, publishers retain the right to place their own ads next to the content, and according to reports, they’ll keep 100 percent of the revenues from these ads — at least for now. Facebook will also allow publishers to independently measure traffic to Instant Articles using third-party tools such as Google Analytics and Omniture.

Finally, publishers retain substantial control over the branding of Instant Articles. A New York Times article will have a prominent New York Times logo at the top, making clear to readers that they’re reading a Times story, not a generic Facebook news story.

Why do critics say this is a threat to journalism?

Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox. (

Ian Kennedy

)

A number of journalists worry that the deal will give Facebook too much power over the news business. Here’s how Felix Salmon put it in March:

It’s about losing control over exactly how your content is presented and delivered — about losing most of the things which make your news brand memorable and unique. At some point, it’s easy to foresee a world where talented individuals, rather than brands, make a good living by producing the kind of news content which “works really well” on Facebook. If Facebook becomes the new YouTube in that respect, and if Facebook continues to grow as a trusted news source in its own right, then the result could be an existential crisis for news organizations with old-fashioned things like editors and fact-checkers and clear ethical guidelines.

Skeptics believe that news organizations need the kind of control they get from running their own website. In their view, running their own websites fosters a stronger bond between readers and publishers and gives publishers more opportunity to innovate.

They also worry that the relatively favorable terms of Facebook’s current deal with publishers won’t last. They worry that Facebook could start taking a greater cut of ad revenue, limit news organizations’ control over how their content is presented, and limit their access to data about their users’ online activities.

As David Carr put it last year: “Many publishers are worried that what has been a listening tour could become a telling tour, in which Facebook dictates terms because it drives so much traffic.”

Worst of all, they worry that Facebook will use the leverage provided by its huge audience to coerce the rest of the news industry into joining Facebook’s platform. Now that nine prestigious publishers have agreed to join the platform, Facebook could direct more traffic to them and less traffic to the rest of the news industry. That would create tremendous pressure on those other publishers to join up.

Are the critics right?

Users come to Facebook for this kind of thing more than for news. (sabianmaggy)

It’s too early to say, but I’m skeptical.

If you’re worried about Facebook having too much power over the news business, then your beef is with user behavior in general, not Instant Articles in particular. The reason Facebook generates so much traffic for news organizations is because users spend a huge amount of time on the site.

And reading news is a small fraction of people’s Facebook time. People mostly use Facebook to look at pictures of their grandchildren, share photos of their friends’ weddings, and swap gossip about life in their hometowns. Facebook would continue to be a very popular website even if it had zero news content.

So it’s not obvious how much publisher participation in Instant Articles increases Facebook’s power. Facebook had a lot of power over the news industry last week, and it would have continued having that power even if no publishers had signed up for Facebook-hosted news.

And crucially, these content deals are non-exclusive. Facebook users on iPhones will see a special, Facebook-optimized version of New York Times articles. For everyone else, the Times website will work exactly the same way it did before. And that’s unlikely to change, because while Facebook generates a lot of traffic, most of the news industry’s traffic still comes from elsewhere on the web.

This means that news organizations retain a fair amount of leverage. If Facebook tried to drastically alter the terms of the deal, the news organizations can quit the program and take their content with them. They’d face some costs for this — slower load times and the loss of access to Facebook’s lucrative ad platform — but that’s just another way of saying they’d be back where they were before they signed up for the program.

What does Instant Articles say about the evolution of the web?

The web is maturing. The early days of any new communications media tends to be a free-for-all, with a lot of small publishers or broadcasters experimenting with the new technologies and building up modest audiences.

But then there’s usually a period of consolidation, when a few channels gain a disproportionate share of the traffic. In the 20th century, the television business became dominated by ABC, CBS, and NBC. Most cities became dominated by one or two newspapers. A few magazines like Time and Newsweek dominated the weekly news business.

THESE NEW PLATFORMS STILL GIVE USERS A LOT MORE CONTROL THAN THE OLD ONES

Something similar seems to be happening on the web. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are emerging as the ABC, CBS, and NBC of the 21st century — sites that attract vastly more traffic than most others.

But the web has two big things going for it. First, these new platforms still give users a lot more control than the old ones did. In 1970, everyone had to choose from the same 3 TV shows. Today, Facebook does a pretty good job of letting you pick what content you’re interested in, and Twitter gives power users even more control over the content they choose.

Second, while a few sites are a lot more popular than the rest, there are still a lot of options out there. You can find news using Reddit or Digg or Pinterest or dozens of other sites. And while Facebook has a huge head start, barriers to entry are still pretty low. If Facebook stops serving its users well, someone else might take its place.

#facebook #instant articles #mobile #publishing #optimization #content #articles

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