social media giant Facebook Tuesday launched a new newsletter product called “Bulletin,” a standalone platform for free and paid articles and podcasts that will aim to rival Substack. Mark Zuckerberg announced the platform, which is live on Bulletin.com, and introduced some of the writers the company has recruited to a live audio room on Facebook. Facebook is pushing to compete in the booming email newsletter trend, as high-profile journalists and writers have left media companies to strike on their own over the past year.
Self-publishing platform Substack is a leader in helping authors sell email subscriptions, and it has lured journalists into cash advances. Other tech companies are competing in this area as well, including Twitter, which acquired newsletter platform Revue. Facebook said it would not cut revenue for Bulletin creators at launch and creators could choose their own subscription price. It’s launching the stage with a number of high-profile personalities and writers including sportscaster Erin Andrews, writer Malcolm Gladwell and “Queer Eye” star Tan France. The social network has had a turbulent relationship with the news industry, which came to a head in February after a showdown with the Australian government over paying news outlets for content. After the conflict, Facebook pledged to invest $1 billion (about Rs 7,430 crore) in the news industry globally over the next three years.
The company said articles and podcasts will also be available through the Facebook News Feed and Facebook’s News section. On the new site, it said, “We created the bulletin on a separate website so that creators can grow their audience in ways that are not exclusively dependent on the Facebook platform.” Facebook stated that it was launching with primarily US creators and was not accepting new ones at this time. But it said the bulletin site is available worldwide and it would consider adding more international names after beta testing.
In April, Facebook said it would pay $5 million (about Rs 37 crore) to recruit independent local journalists to write for its new publishing platform.
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