Facebook on the hunt for Australian news partnerships lead
Social media giant Facebook is searching for a news partnerships lead in Australia.
The new role comes as Facebook looks to better assist publishers and journalists, by improving the integrity of its newsfeed, increasing subscription partnerships, and offering mid roll ads on videos.
According to a post on Facebook Careers, the company is looking for a leader to help “drive relationships with journalists, publishers, and media companies in Australia and New Zealand”.
The full-time position is based out of Sydney, and requires someone with a “passion for news, publishing and journalism”.
“Success in this position requires a passion for working with partners, strong analytical skills, a focus on partner management, and the ability to thrive in a dynamic, team-focused environment,” the post said.
Responsibilities include developing and executing strategy for partnerships within the news industry, representing Facebook at industry events and meetings, representing partner perspectives to Facebook product and engineering teams, and executive projects involving quantitive analysis, industry research, and strategy development.
The company is looking for someone with more than 10 years of experience in journalism, newsrooms, or with publishers, and who has a focus on “social media storytelling, audience engagement, or partner management”.
A Facebook spokesperson told Mumbrella the new role was about being a “good partner” to the news publishing community.
“We’ve been a partner to the news industry for a long time, and globally our News Partnerships team has existed for six years,” the spokesperson explained.
“This important new role will focus on bringing new products and formats to Australian and New Zealand publishers, help train the community on Facebook tools and aim to collaborate with industry to understand what experiences publishers are asking for across the Facebook suite of apps and services.
“The role is ultimately about being a good partner to the news publishing community. Our mission is to help build informed communities — and you cannot have informed communities without a strong news industry.”
Last week during the Senate Inquiry into the Future of Public Interest Journalism, Facebook said it had no immediate plans to work with Australian fact checking organisations, and it did not have a solution for the removal of fake news on its platform.
However, Kerr said the company respected publishers’ “wishes” – including paywalls, and subscriptions.
She said: “In terms of how revenue share works on our platform, first and foremost if publishers choose to use that to distribute their content, they keep 100% of the revenue.”
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