Facebook announced that the News Feed would prioritize updates from friends and family. They stated that the update would likely mean less engagement on the platform, but Mark Zuckerberg stated that he believes the engagement would be more valuable to users. This update is likely another response to allegations that Facebook’s platform helps spread fake news and/or played a pivotal role in the 2016 USA Elections. The update was disastrous for publishers who had grown to rely on or were fully dependent on traffic from Facebook. By late February the impact on publishers become more apparent with one such publisher “LittleThings” shutting down completely while others laid off staff members dedicated to making content for Facebook. Later one report would state that this update increased the cost of Facebook Ads 122%, the highest increase in ad costs on the platform the previous 2 years.
More Information / Press
- Recode: Facebook is making a major change to the News Feed that will show you more content from friends and family and less from publishers
- LittleThings: Goodbye from LittleThings
- Forbes: Facebook’s Latest Algorithm Change: Here Are The News Sites That Stand To Lose The Most
- Mashable: Facebook to publishers: The News Feed algorithm isn’t why you’re failing [Response about LittleThings]
- CNN Money: Vox Media to lay off around 50 staffers in latest round of industry cuts
- Business Insider: Facebook ad prices are rising after the News Feed change
- Recode: Facebook ad costs spiked higher after a big change to its News Feed algorithm