Facebook announced on Thursday it has created a newswire tool tailored to journalists as part of a broader effort to be the go-to place for conversation for its 1 billion users, according to Reuters.
For their new tool is called FB Newswire, Facebook joined with News Corp's Storyful, the media tool that verifies and manages copyright of news and video on social media platforms like Twitter and designed a news feed to help journalists share and embed newsworthy Facebook content that is made public by its members such as photos, status updates and videos, Reuters reported.
"News is finding a bigger audience on Facebook than ever before, and journalists and media organizations have become an integral part of Facebook," wrote Andy Mitchell, director of news and global media partnership at Facebook, in a blog post announcing FB Newswire, according to Reuters.
Due to many journalists active use of Twitter to uncover material, Facebook is also providing a Twitter feed, @FBNewswire, Reuters reported.
"We work closely with our news partners and as we look at the opportunities clearly Facebook was being used as a place to gather news," Mitchell said in an interview with Reuters.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google's YouTube and others have become a gold mine for journalists, Reuters reported. Because they are rich in source material and many people around the world use them to communicate, it has become a viable journalistic tool during periods of upheaval, Reuters reported.
Facebook's newsfeed, where people post stories, status updates and photos, is an integral part of the company's revenue growth and it injects paid marketing messages straight into the news stream, according to Reuters. On Wednesday, Facebook reported a 72 percent increase in revenue to $2.5 billion during the first quarter because of a surge in advertising.
