How Facebook is Courting Publishers

By: John McDermott | Digiday

Over the past year, Facebook has for many publishers supplanted Google as the most important driver of referral traffic.

Much of that is due to the various changes Facebook has made to its news feed to more prominently feature publishers’ stories. But there’s a human component to Facebook’s recent embrace of the publishing world, as well. Facebook has over the past year and a half built up a formidable media partnerships division, recruiting former journalists and publishing execs from the world’s most prestigious media companies to help the company’s relationships with publishers.