Axios reports that Meta will cease support for its Instant Articles in the next year. Instant Articles, a mobile format that allows for the quick loading of news articles via the Facebook app, was launched in 2015.
According to Erin Miller, Meta spokesperson, the company informed its media partners that Instant Articles will be discontinued by Facebook in six months. News links on Facebook will redirect users to publisher’s sites after April 2023.
“Currently less than 3 percent of what people around the world see in Facebook’s Feed posts with links to news articles. And as we said earlier this year, as a business it doesn’t make sense to over-invest in areas that don’t align with user preferences,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
This is part of Meta’s wider pullback from news-related apps and increased focus video offerings. It announced last week that Bulletin, its newsletter platform, will be closing down by 2023. It had also announced earlier this year that it would be moving its resources away from its News tab.
Meta is instead trying to make Facebook’s feed more like TikTok’s short-video app TikTok. It focuses more on algorithmic recommendations for preferred content.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, called Facebook the Fifth Estate in 2019. The social networking platform brokered several three-year deals that year with publishers. It increased its investment in news and hired journalists to direct publisher traffic toward its new tab. It offered breaking news alerts, a dedicated section for local news, and other topics.
Meta will end support for Instant Articles in the Facebook app in next year’s Reports. Meta will be dropping the quick-loading article format. It was first introduced in 2015. According to Erin Miller, a spokesperson for Meta, the company informed its media partners that Instant Articles will cease to be supported by Facebook in six months or April 2023. News links on Facebook will redirect users to the publisher’s site after support ends.
Meta has been reducing its news investments over the past few months. The company moved resources away from Facebook’s News tab and Bulletin newsletter product early this year. Just this month, it announced that it would close down Bulletin completely by the beginning of 2023.
