Meta’s head of news relations, Campbell Brown is reportedly stepping down, or should I say has stepped down already. The now-former head exits Meta as the firm backs away from news content on its platform.
Meta’s Head of News Relations Is Stepping Down
As Meta continues in its aim to take steps back from news promotion on its platforms, its head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, is now leaving the company, as reported by Axios. She was hired back in 2017 to help news organizations on the platform get their content in front of users as the company pushed to make Facebook a major news aggregator at the time.
Brown Will Continue To Work with Meta as a Consultant
Brown will however continue to “remain affiliated with Meta” as a consultant, as per an internal documents viewed by Axios. Meta, during her tenure reportedly added a News tab, worked to get big licensing deals with news publishers, and then even offered grants via its Facebook Journalism Project to help fund struggling local news platforms and outlets.
Brown’s Statement In a 2018 Code Conference Interview about the Nature of Her Job
Brown back in a 2018 Code Conference interview stated that her job was “not to go recruit people from news organizations to put their stuff on Facebook,” also adding later that anyone who “feels this isn’t the right platform for them … should not be on Facebook.”
The Reason Meta Is Backing Away From News Content on Its Platform
As governments all over the world turned a regulatory eye on what would eventually become Meta, the firm did an about-face on its news efforts, with Brown reportedly revealing to employees that it would instead “heighten their focus on building a more robust Creator economy.” The firms at the time also responded to governments all over the world requiring them to pay news organizations for hosting their content on their platform with broad bans on news sharing, and most recently in Canada.
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