The Guardian ceases publishing on Apple News and Facebook Instant Articles
Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News will no longer house The Guardian’s articles, with the publication pulling its content from the platforms.
The publisher’s decision will see the UK, US and Australian content axed from the platforms, with a spokesperson from The Guardian saying: “We have run extensive trials on Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News to assess how they fit with our editorial and commercial objectives.
“Having evaluated these trials, we have decided to stop publishing in those formats on both platforms.
“Our primary objective is to bring audiences to the trusted environment of The Guardian to support building deeper relationships with our readers, and growing membership and contributions to fund our world-class journalism,” the spokesperson said.
After launching Facebook Instant Articles two years ago with Buzzfeed, BBC News and The Guardian as some of the first to sign on to the platform, “Facebook believed that Instant Articles was going to be a very efficient way for us to publish straight into the news feed”, Pemsel told Mumbrella.
Pemsel said in March, he would stick out a trial with the platform for audience reach purposes.
“What I would say is that it’s great for reach and it’s a brilliant way to be able to extend our audience and our traffic and build a much more global reach,” he said.
“The economics financially for us were woeful.
“It was an attempt to try to find some equitable return for us for our journalism and it didn’t succeed, at all. So now we will keep pushing Facebook to come up with new ideas,” he said.
The publisher stopped running its content on the platform over the weekend.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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Smart move. Maybe it’s just me but I much prefer being directed to the publication’s own site, with full access to social media sharing tools, ability to copy URL, etc.
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