Facebook Introduces Bulletin Offering Complete Editorial Independence

Facebook launched Bulletin, a platform with publishing and subscription tools for independent writers. The selected independent creators in the US have now the complete freedom to express their flair for writing. Bulletin is providing them with total editorial independence. Facebook Newsroom states,“Through Bulletin, we want to support these creators, and unify our existing tools with something that could more directly support great writing and audio content — from podcasts to Live Audio Rooms — all in one place.”

The initial group of writers on Bulletin are Adam Grant (Adam Grant Thinks Again), Dorie Greenspan (xoxo Dorie), Erin Andrews, (The Real Deal with Erin Andrews), Dr. James Hamblin (The Body), Jane Wells (Wells Street), Jessica Yellin (News Not Noise), Malcolm Gladwell (Oh, MG), Mitch Albom (Life at the Orphanage), Dr. Raven Baxter (Science and the Culture), Ron Claiborne (Second Acts), Tan France (Tan France’s Real Reality), and Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok (Marginal Revolution).

Along with offers such as third-party perks, including legal resources, design support, and assistance with financial services. Facebook Bulletin is also providing support based on content creation, monetisation, and audience growth. It includes robust publishing tools, sustainable business models, discovery and distribution, and building community.

Let’s get into more details as per Facebook Newsroom:

Robust Publishing Tools

Bulletin is building tools that enable creators to start their own publications and write long-form articles. Each Bulletin creator will have a standalone website under their own brand and will be able to customise their publication’s name, logo, and colour palette. Creators can customize their articles with multi-media embeds and other styling options.

Sustainable Business Models

Bulletin aims for creators to build sustainable independent businesses on their own terms. Writers will keep all of their subscription revenue for the length of these partnerships and will have the ability to take their subscriber lists and content with them. Subscription payments will be securely handled by Facebook Pay, allowing subscribers to pay with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal account. Writers can offer a range of subscription-based features, including content, commenting abilities, and Facebook groups accessible only by subscribers. Analytics tools will be provided to writers for understanding their audience and growing their subscribers over time. They are also offered a multi-year licensing deal to build a relationship with their readers.

Discovery and Distribution

To connect audiences with a range of new and diverse voices and enable them to go deeper into the topics they care about, Bulletin is featuring discovery and distribution. Bulletin content will be eligible for distribution in Facebook News and other discovery surfaces to help audiences easily find it and subscribe. Apart from long-form writing, tools to distribute podcasts such as externally-hosted podcasts and additional audio features will be introduced soon. Also, Bulletin will integrate with Facebook Pages to enable publishing across various multimedia formats. 

Building Community

Bulletin writers will have an opportunity to foster deeper connections with their audiences on Facebook. They can create Facebook groups, free or subscriber-only, to nurture a community of readers. Within their groups, they’ll also have the ability to create subscriber-only content or host subscriber-only conversations. Writers will have the ability to leverage Facebook’s existing tools like Facebook Live or Live Audio Rooms to continue the discussion with their communities. To help writers keep discussions respectful, they will also be provided with comment moderation tools, like the ability for writers to control who can comment (such as paid subscribers only), and turn off comments.

That’s all about Facebook’s new initiative to develop independent writers and creators. For more information, tap HERE!