Facebook eyes newsletter business with a new platform for independent writers

Facebook’s new platform will also offer monetisation tools to help content creators build individual websites and businesses.

Facebook will start by partnering with a small subset of independent writers (REUTERS)

Facebook on Tuesday said it would launch a new platform to allow independent writers to engage with their audience through websites and email newsletter. The platform will be available in the coming months in the US. 

Facebook will initially offer the platform through a partnership with a “small subset of independent writers.” As expected, writers will also be able to monetise through various tools.

“The independent creator space is growing. We fully support the work that others are doing and want to ensure that we can provide additional avenues for growth and monetisation as well. We're just beginning this work and look forward to collaborating with creators of all kinds to build products and features that can have a meaningful impact in sustaining their work,” Facebook said in a post.

With the new platform, Facebook will offer a free and self-publishing tool to create websites and email newsletter. It will also integrate with Facebook Pages and allow publishing across using different multimedia formats such as live videos, stories, and photos. Writers will have the top set up Facebook Groups and develop their community.

Facebook will also offer features to help readers discover new content and writers. Other features are monetisation tools, insights to check the content performance, and accelerator services to help creators.

The Verge points out that the newsletter space is gaining momentum in the digital space. For instance, Substack is one of the top newsletter platforms with many independent writers on-board.

Apart from Facebook, Twitter is also making a similar effort in the newsletter business. Just in January this year, Twitter acquired the popular newsletter firm Revue. Last month, the company said it would soon allow content creators to share longer-format content through Revue. 

Twitter had said it would reduce the fee to 5% charged for the paid version of the platform. The free version of Revue allows writers and publishers to send newsletters to 50 people for free. The paid model allowed them to send up to a larger number of subscribers.