Facebook Begins Testing Direct Publication of News Articles - NYTimes.com

A perilous proposition for publishers; also see Introducing Instant Articles (Facebook Media blog); coincidentally, also see Now you can read 'The New York Times' for free on its redesigned iOS app (Macworld)

"For publishers, the Facebook initiative represents the latest in a series of existential balancing acts. The social network, which has more than 1.4 billion active users worldwide, captures more attention of mobile users — and prompts more visits to news sites — than virtually any other service.

Publishers have little choice but to cooperate with Facebook, said Vivian Schiller, a former executive at NBC, The New York Times and Twitter who now advises media companies and brands. “That’s where the audience is,” Ms. Schiller said. “It’s too massive to ignore.”

But Facebook’s role as a powerful distributor of news makes many people in the industry uneasy. The fear is that it could become more of a destination than their own sites for the work they produce, drawing away readers and advertising."

Facebook Begins Testing Direct Publication of News Articles - NYTimes.com