Facebook is on a big listening tour for local media — and publishers are actually happy

"Media Organizations Make Pilgrimage To Facebook Headquarters To Lay Content At Foot Of Mark Zuckerberg," reads the headline of perhaps my favorite article from The Onion.

It's a satire, of course, but the act of media companies traveling to Facebook's headquarters and speaking about how each party can better serve each other is, in fact, a reality. Two weeks ago, 15 of the top stakeholders in local media traveled to the New York office to do exactly that, among a day of other publisher-focused events including one on video monetization, previously reported by Digiday.

The roundtable for local news included partnership groups like the Local Media Association and the Local Media Consortium, as well as media companies like Gannett, TEGNA and McClatchy. The three participants, who Mashable spoke with, seemed optimistic about the future relationship given Facebook's commitment to listening, transparency and execution.

"I think it’s been really encouraging to see them opening up their news and content sides of their business to work with media companies because Facebook has been, 'We’re just a platform and everyone else can use it or not or go to hell,'" said Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates and chairman of Local Media Association. "They’ve become reactively engaged."

What's happening

It took awhile for Facebook to engage so closely, yet that timeline wasn't surprising to publishers. "It took us that long to get with Google. About 10 years ago, Google was like, you give me your archives and we'll digitize them," said Rusty Coats, executive director of the Local Media Consortium.

In January, Facebook announced the "Facebook Journalism Project," an initiative to collaborate with media outlet and provide new tools and training for journalists. In the week prior, Facebook hired Campbell Brown, former NBC and CNN journalist, to serve as the new head of news partnerships.

So far, Facebook is impressing publishers more than Google did. "There seems to be a bigger openness with the folks at Facebook to go in and learn. Before with Google, it was we’re going to tell you how it works. With Facebook, it’s tell us how," Borrell said.

Facebook already has some tools to offer based on publisher feedback. At the meeting last month, Brown began the day with an introduction and a welcome and spoke about monetization, highlighting new ways publishers can more easily make money from their content shared on Facebook.

Brown said publishers soon will be able to insert more ads into Instant Articles, perhaps every 150 words. These changes to the ad load are not finalized and could change. Facebook also presented its new option for publishers to insert ad breaks, a.k.a. mid-rolls ads, in videos, which it is currently testing with a select number of partners.

"There was a lot of negative reaction to mid-roll, but when they showed us the tool, it was simple, easy to implement," said Nancy Lane, president of Local Media Association. "They showcased that they were listening loud and clear."

Brainstorming

The meeting also included a brainstorming session, where Facebook engineers and product managers sat down with participants to discuss potential updates to the product itself.

Coats of the Local Media Consortium said he would like to see more information surfaced from Facebook's Groups, like which ones are the most popular in the area.

"It would help know how to better cover my market, capturing that master narrative," he said, likening it to the readership surveys he used to do while working for newspapers.

Coats also suggested more localized trending topics.

Lane said they discussed and made mockups of how local news could be reimagined of the site. For instance, they drew an "opt-in local News Feed" on tablets.

"There's real value in that, opt-in, consumer-driven, in Facebook," Lane said. "We don't know what's going to come of it. It's their company. We have to play by their rules. This could compete with Twitter, and I think they had interest in it."

For now, publishers can expect more commitment from the Facebook Journalism Project with regional meetings and larger events. Members of the team have already met with publishers in Dallas and Atlanta. Seattle and San Diego are up next.

Facebook is, for the first time, integrating a news and publisher track into F8, its annual developers conference. Brown is also scheduled to host an event with the local Media Consortium in May, according to Coats.

Still figuring it out

This moment in history required action not just by Facebook, but also an admission from publishers that Facebook is a game they have to play.

Publishers "have seen themselves as owners," Borrell said, "and they've had to learn."

"This is consumer-driven. Consumers are going to Facebook to get their news," Lane said.

But there are still some publishers at the early stages of figuring the transition out. Facebook is changing that, in part, with the Facebook Journalism Project.

One platform partner at the top of everyone's minds, including Facebook's, is Snapchat. Indeed, Facebook's head of local partnerships Phillip Rather, speaking at the Borrell Associates' 2017 Local Online Advertising Conference Monday, said, "Snapchat had a very successful IPO. The other successful millennial app is Instagram."

For now, working with Snapchat on Discover or another activation just isn't on the table for most small, low-budget publishers.

"I used to ask my kids about the media on there [Discover], and they were like, 'We never looked at that.' But not sure if you heard, when Marty Baron last week said we're looking at it. You know if Marty's thinking it's important, we have to pay attention. Anyone who can bring down the Catholic Church is worth listening to," Coats said.