Platforms offer olive branches with subscription initiatives and news payments to tempt publishers back

Platforms have barely been out of the headlines in 2019. Whether it’s heated debates about political advertising, continued issues with the proliferation of fake news, or trying to set up a new global financial system, the impacts of the decisions the tech giants make continue to significantly impact the media ecosystem.

Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp have had a bumpy ride this year, and appear to be working frantically to integrate these properties under the Facebook (now FACEBOOK) umbrella before regulators can break them up.

When it comes to their relationship with publishers, this year has been a stark contrast to 2018. Facebook may not have reversed its devastating algorithm changes, but it has made efforts to repair its relationship with the publishing industry this year. There have been two notable launches; the rollout of subscriptions in Instant Articles, and a dedicated News Tab.

Let’s start with Instant Articles Subscriptions. The platform has been testing the feature for over 18 months, but in June, they announced that they were rolling it out to ‘all eligible publishers’ worldwide. In practice, it means that publishers can define when a reader sees a paywall in Instant Articles, depending on their own model. A range of subscription models are supported, from metered paywalls to ‘freemium’ models.

There are pros and cons to the tool. It has a number of options to help convert subscribers, from welcome screens to dedicated publisher content feeds, which have increased the articles read by subscribers on Facebook by 40%. But Facebook are the ones ‘owning’ and processing those subscribers, meaning that users remain in the ecosystem without ever having to visit the publisher’s site at all.

At the time of writing, Facebook News is still in a test phase in the US, with no fixed timeline for rollout elsewhere. It is very likely that the tech giant will be pressured into supporting a fairer payment system for publishers early next year. But it is just as likely that handouts of millions of dollars isn’t part of the long-term plan.

When it comes to Facebook’s other properties, there have been few significant updates that directly affect publishers.

Instagram has seen little in the way of significant announcements this year. Following the launch of IGTV late last year, a number of publishers have been experimenting with the TV format, with growth being ‘steady but unspectacular’. If Facebook’s News tab rollout performs well, they may begin to turn their attention properly to publishers on Instagram. But there are no plans yet.

Google have grabbed almost as many headlines as Facebook when it comes to clashes with the publishing industry this year. The most notable fight, which is still ongoing, is the pay-for-snippets dispute which saw Google go head to head with French publishers in October.

This began with the passing of the European Copyright Directive earlier in the year. The most controversial parts of the law require large platforms like Facebook and Google to pay a ‘link tax’ when they use small snippets of publisher content, such as displaying a headline and subhead in search results.

But it will certainly be a case of ‘the unstoppable force meets the immovable object’ as 2020 gets underway. No matter how many European publishers adopt this legislation, Google wields enormous power, and can choose to simply not comply.

Despite the fury from the industry, the service signed on some impressive titles for its March launch, with the Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and the National Geographic Magazine joining a host of Condé Nast brands and over 300 other publishers.

Two platforms deserve a mention, perhaps less for practical reasons as for the sheer amount of hype generated this year. Social video platform TikTok has emerged as the hot app of 2019, amassing over half a billion active users worldwide.

Again, the Washington Post is trialling live broadcasts and replays on the platform. Phoebe Connelly, the Deputy Director of Video, has said that Twitch’s clear pathways to monetisation make it more appealing than other platforms.

But as with all these different types of platform, it’s not about TikTok vs Twitch. Twitch is much more focused on long-form video, Instagram on mid-length, and TikTok on extremely short-form. 2020 will be about leveraging these platforms in a way that makes most sense — and money — for publishers.

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