Facebook is Launching TheStreet, News Subscription

Facebook has decided to launch a news-based subscription called TheStreet. Facebook Executive of News Partnerships, Campbell Brown, reported that preliminary tests will start this October in response to pleading news publishers.

TheStreet will be a feature Instant Articles, which are articles that pop up in the Facebook feed based on the individual user’s interests and preferences. This will allow publishers to form a paywall, which will direct readers to the publisher’s main site and prompt them to get a digital subscription. Additionally, the paywall would necessitate readers to become subscribers of the platform after they accessed 10 articles.

If you aren’t familiar with the paywall idea, it is based on metered and premium plans. Considering news sources have little control over how their content reaches users on Facebook, the paywall will administer information in a more strategical fashion and also have cost value. Many news sources have complained about how news is presented over Facebook, moreover, so the paywall will also conciliate their concerns.

At the Digital Publishing Innovation Summit, an industry conference, in New York City on July 18, Brown said, “One of the things we heard in our initial meetings from many newspapers and digital publishers is that ‘we want a subscription product — we want to be able to see a paywall in Facebook and that is something we’re doing now. We are launching a subscription product.”

So far, the financial details have yet to be determined, and we don’t expect to know the prices per article or subscription costs until October when the paywall finally starts. We do know, on the other hand, that publishers will hold the reigns of their respective subscriber data.

We will let you know if there are any further details about TheStreet, which will officially be active this coming October. Until then, enjoy the news on your feed on Facebook while it still is available.