Facebook launches new Instant Articles for speed reading online

Tech giant Facebook made a leap into the publishing space yesterday, introducing Instant Articles, with big names signed up to launch it.

 

The new product allows outlets to publish multimedia articles direct to Facebook, instead of them sharing links on the social network to drive users to their own website. 

 

News organisations can sell their own adverts on the articles, and keep all the revenue, or use Facebook’s advertising network and share the revenue.

 

Instant Articles will have the New York Times, Buzzfeed, and the Guardian as anchor media partners first publishing stories through the Facebook for mobile iPhone app.

 

Reading a piece via Facebook requires leaving the social network, which can be slow on a mobile device. Facebook estimates Instant Articles could save users about eight seconds an article.

 

Facebook also began a $15 an hour minimum wage for contractors, to White House praise.