What Is Facebook News, and Should Your Business Care?

Want to successfully showcase your brand on Instagram? Then Instagram Stories should be a part of your daily work. In our 'Storrito Q and A' we'll explain everything you need to know about Instagram, Instagram Stories and Instagram Marketing.

Today: What you should know about Facebook News.

Heads up: Meta shut down the Facebook News tab in the US and Australia in April 2024, and in the UK, Germany, and France in 2023. The rest of this article describes how the feature worked during its active run. For current Facebook marketing guidance, see our hub on Facebook Story marketing.

Key facts at a glance

• What Facebook News is, and how it sits inside the main Facebook app
• The rollout timeline from US test to UK, Germany, and India
• How algorithms and human editors share the curation job
• What publishers need to do to qualify for the News Page Index

Facebook News is a separate area for journalistic content in the main Facebook app.

Facebook started testing the separate section for news in the US in 2019. A few hundred thousand users were able to try out the new feature.

In June 2020, Facebook rolled out the feature all over the US. Since then, Facebook has rolled it out to a range of countries, including the UK, Germany, and India.

How does Facebook News work?

With Facebook News, Meta wanted to create a space to make quality journalism available for its users. At the same time, Facebook wanted to provide more monetization options for publishers and media outlets.

In every country, Facebook works together with a vast number of publishers to provide a wide range of editorial content.

To be part of the Facebook News universe, publishers must meet some criteria. They need to register in the News Page Index and comply with Facebook's community standards and general integrity guidelines.

How to find Facebook News in your app

In the Facebook app on your smartphone, you can find Facebook News designed as a tab. To open the section, follow these steps:

1. Open the Facebook app on your mobile device and log into your account.
2. Tap the three lines called 'Menu' in the right-hand corner at the bottom of your screen.
3. Scroll down and tap 'News'.

You can also find Facebook News via your search bar. Just type in 'Facebook News' into the search bar and tap on the Facebook News shortcut.

What is in it for you

Facebook News is divided into different sections.

The first one is Today's Stories. Here you can find the latest headlines selected by a team of journalists to stay informed about the latest news throughout the day.

Facebook News also lets you personalize your experience. The algorithm will choose news for you based on what you read, share, and whom you follow on Facebook. But you can also hide things you do not want to see. That can be articles, topics, or publishers.

The feed is also organized by topic. So, if you are especially interested in business, entertainment, or tech news, you can browse through these sections.

If you have a subscription to one or more media outlets, you can also link your subscription to your Facebook account. That way, you have access to your paid content via Facebook as well.

How Facebook News Fits Into Your Content Strategy

Instagram Stories remain one of the most important parts of a good marketing strategy. Storrito lets your team design, edit, and schedule Stories from a browser, with cross-posting to Facebook and team access included. Try it free.