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January 15, 2018

It has been nearly 15 years. We are talking about the length of time that 24-7 Press Release Newswire has been in the press release distribution business. We have seen and experienced a lot during the time we have been in businesses.

If you look at the industry as a whole over the last 100 years, there have been more changes in the last 15 years than the previous 85. Although journalism can be traced back as far as 1690, when Benjamin Harris published the first edition of "Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic" in Boston we will look at the most recent changes.

We won't repeat what we've written before about the evolution of the press distribution industry (we wrote an article about this here "24-7 Press Release Distribution - A Look at the Evolving Press Distribution Industry and How to Maximize Impact when You Submit Your Press Release with our Service". Instead, we will focus on one interesting, and significant, point that involves a major social media network. The social media channel we are talking about is one you should recognize, unless you have been hiding under a rock since February of 2004. We are talking about Facebook.

Not too long ago, March of 2013 in fact, according to WikiPedia, Facebook added news feeds. At the time, this was a huge announcement that sent tidal waves throughout the industry, including press release distribution companies (like 24-7 Press Release Newswire, PRNewswire, Business wire and more), journalists and researchers. It changed the distribution of news, how journalists would research and look for news and receive news--along with much more. It was one of the biggest changes in the industry since Google introduced Penguin and Panda.

Fast forward to January 12, 2018 and boom, the industry has been turned on its head once again with the announcement that Facebook will be making changes to its social media platform's news feeds once again. You will gradually notice, over the weeks to come, a reduction of news or press release related articles combined with less marketing content and ads. To go back to the grass roots of what Facebook was originally built for, you will begin to see a change in content--an increase in vacation videos from friends, family photos and general personal posts about those within their Facebook friends network.

According to an article over at Fortune.com, Zuckerberg felt with the increase in news articles and marketing, it has created an imbalance that "is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other." 24-7 Press Release Newswire would agree with this because in the beginning we felt that this mix of personal and business was a little bit like oil and water.

Is this change also influenced by all the talk of "fake news" that has spread online? How about all the murmurs over news, Facebook and the U.S. election, like this article titled "Russia, Facebook, the US election and when 126 million isn't 126 million" over at the BBC. In our humble opinion, this clearly represents a bad mix between "personal" and "business."

Although still a power house within the realm of social media, rather than continuing to grow, there has actually been a decrease in the amount of time that folks are spending on the social media giant. According to the article at Fortune, Pivotal Research Group researched Facebook usage data with audiences spanning a 14-month timeframe that ended September 2017 and found a decline in Facebook usage. Our own opinion is that Facebook does not have the same personal feel and appeal that it did five years ago.

So, what does this mean for the news industry, journalists, researchers and so on? We believe you will begin to see a decline in (as previously mentioned at the beginning of this article) in your individual news feeds. Those who tried to use the free organic route to spread news via Facebook may need to look back to press release distribution services (like 24-7 Press Release Newswire, PR Newswire, etc.). For those looking to continue publishing organically through Facebook, you will certainly have to change the tone and perhaps source of your messaging as well.

Publishers, according to the article, may have to deepen existing engagements with Google to continue visibility. 24-7 Press Release Newswire has already begun to see a bump because those who publish through the 24-7 Press Release Newswire network notice an increase in online visibility through 24-7Press Release's excellent reach with its online partners.

As for journalists, bloggers, researchers and the like, using a no-cost service like Media Desk from 24-7 Press Release Newswire is an excellent way to be notified of what is going on in your industry with small businesses when news breaks.

This just goes to show that changes will continue to happen within the industry and we simply need to learn to adjust. Whether it is Facebook today, or another giant that doesn't even exist yet tomorrow, don't rest on your laurels, be prepared to shift and rely on those companies that have been solid in the industry in previous years. Companies like 24-7 Press Release Newswire will continue to get your press release news where it needs to go - without any unforeseen changes.