Complete Story
05/18/2017
Local news outlets find an unlikely ally in the duopoly
Talk to a big publisher about Google and Facebook, and you’ll hear the strains of a dysfunctional relationship. But there’s one publishing sector that’s surprisingly having a bit of a honeymoon period: local news.
Thanks to regular visits from a Google-funded trainer, Bay Area News Group, a string of local newspapers and sites in Northern California whose flagship is The Mercury News, has become facile in using Google search, Fusion Tables and Maps in reporting. Facebook also recently had the group’s execs over to its nearby headquarters, where it offered them help understanding analytics and using Facebook Live.
“They just seem open to getting more involved in helping the mission of local journalism,” said Neil Chase, executive editor of the Bay Area News Group, adding, “I could use all the help I can get.”
Chase isn’t alone in noticing the platforms are taking a stronger interest in local news lately. Local news was a part of the Facebook Journalism Project to strengthen Facebook’s relationship with news organizations. The initiative was launched in January, at a time when the platform faced criticism for allowing false news reports to get exposure in its News Feed.
As part of the project, Facebook embarked on a sort of local listening tour that’s already visited Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego and Seattle, and was scheduled to be in Denver and Chicago this week. Josh Mabry was hired late last year as a partner manager on the Facebook news partnerships team, led by TV news vet Campbell Brown, the first time Facebook has had someone specifically devoted to local. This spring, it appointed its first product manager specifically for local news, Anthea Watson Strong.
