Facebook rolled out its independent newsletter ‘Bulletin’ on Tuesday, as competition warms up against opponents Substack and Twitter-backed Revue. Creators and Writers including Malcolm Gladwell, Tan France, and Erin Andrews are amongst its initial recruits.
Moreover, in an audio live stream, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched Bulletin as a platform centered on empowering independent writers, supporting them to reach new audiences and influence their businesses.
“The goal here across the company is to support eventually millions of people making a living doing creative work,” Zuckerberg said.
Facebook introduced Bulletin as a way for writers to monetize their audience, and
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Today we’re launching Bulletin, a new platform that empowers independent writers, experts, and journalists to share their voices. Start reading someone new, todayhttps://t.co/Ya0hW9fC4e pic.twitter.com/U2pfpkXkrs
— Facebook (@Facebook) June 29, 2021
Zuckerberg stated they will not take a share from the earnings at launch. The content creators will have complete ownership of their work and subscribers and be able to publish free and paid newsletters that can be distributed across inboxes and the Facebook platform.
The company also informed that it will continue to hire other writers to include topics from sports to medicine. With the launch, it further adds high-profile recruits including author Mitch Albom and journalists Jane Wells and Jessica Yellin.
This is not Facebook’s first attempt at cloning thriving products on the market by placing its influence and capital behind new projects. In January, the social media platform launch podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S., its response to Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces.
In addition, for journalists and writers searching for a newsletter home, it may come down to the scope and size of the social network. They may encounter an advantage to Facebook and Twitter’s influence, whereas Substack gives a new take with impressive growth.
Furthermore, Substack had 12 million subscribers a month and 500,000 paying readers as of April, as per Politico. Twitter recorded 199 million daily active users, while Facebook had almost 1.9 billion daily users. Twitter, which procured Revue earlier this year, gets a 5% cut in subscription fees, but writers can control whether their work is free or paid. Substack reportedly gives six-figure advances to hire high-profile writers.
Source: Pro Pakistani
