PRESS RELEASE

Bild, Spiegel, BBC, Guardian, NBC and New York Times among early publishers

Boston, MA - June 3, 2015 – Strategy Analytics sees Facebook’s newly launched hosted news publishing platform, Instant Articles, as a first step to a new business model to deliver news, and a shift of power between the news publishers and social networks.

A new report from Strategy Analytics’ Wireless Media Strategies (WMS) service, titled “Instant Articles: YouTube for News Publishers?” examines the operation of Facebook’s Instant Articles platform and its potential significance on the news publishing industry and social networks, hitherto its channel partners.

Click here for the report: http://bit.ly/1G5OdX1

With the new platform, Facebook will host on its own servers the news stories contributed by partners to deliver a better and smoother reading experience on smartphones. If the publishers sell the advertising inventory by themselves they keep all the advertising revenue; or they take 70% if they decide to sell advertising through the ad network Facebook Audience Network.

“With a superior user experience and a strong lineup of partners, such as The New York Times, the BBC and the Spiegel of the world on board, Instant Articles is carrying much stronger momentum than Facebook’s earlier initiative Social Reader,” says Nitesh Patel, Director of Wireless Media Strategies. “Publishers can control what articles are hosted by Facebook while partnership with comScore ensures that Instant Article traffic is measured as the traffic on publishers’ own sites. These terms ensure that publishers retain control and can pull back if they wish.”

“However, longer term, with publishers relying more and more on social networks like Facebook, there is the danger that publishers are relegated to suppliers to a one-stop-shop, not too dissimilar to the video channels on YouTube,” says Wei Shi, Analyst of Wireless Media Strategies. “This will happen if Instant Articles becomes a must-have feature for the news reading population on Facebook and if the traffic generated through Facebook’s hosted service becomes an indispensable ad revenue channel.”           

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides the competitive edge with advisory services, consulting and actionable market intelligence for emerging technology, mobile and wireless, digital consumer and automotive electronics companies. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Strategy Analytics delivers insights for enterprise success. www.StrategyAnalytics.com 

 Source:Strategy Analytics