Facebook is trying to be newspaper's friend while going after recruitment advertising revenue

Facebook has made some news this week. On February 16, founder Mark Zuckerberg posted a 5,000 word essay on a wide variety of topics. As Facebook tries to tackle fake news, their leader talks about the importance of the local news industry.  Yet that same week, Facebook announced that they were beginning to focus on recruitment advertising as a part of their evolving business plan.

The use of social media, especially Facebook needs to be an aggressive part of every newsroom's plan to drive page views and audience engagement. So of course I am encouraged by Zuckerberg's writing when he pens his support, ""...From growing local news, to developing formats best suited to mobile devices, to improving the range of business models news organizations rely on."

I genuinely believe that Facebook wants to see local news organizations succeed in gathering content. Facebook thrives on content, particularly from reliable sources like local newspapers.  But make no mistake, there is no olive branch extended when it comes to advertising revenue.

More and more, sales reps of every legacy media outlet are being told how businesses are working with Facebook; to post special and engage with their fans as well as promote their business to new customers. Digital marketing dollars continue to go up nationally and locally each year, but the market share is being gobbled up by Facebook and Google.  That grab for cash continues, as Facebook now sets its sights on recruitment advertising.

Job seekers in the US and Canada can search and apply for jobs through Facebook. This is a direct assault on LinkedIN and Monster, but certainly has a negative impact on the newspaper industry. Recruitment advertising is a mere shell of what it once was for newspapers, with the digital disrupters Monster and CareerBuilder. Even though two early innovators have been taken over by others including Indeed and ZipRecruiter.  

This competition isn't coming in the distant future. It has arrived in your market and on your Facebook feed right now. A quick search in my market found 26 different posts for employment. Many were part time jobs or lower paying full time jobs, which traditionally are not typical Monster posts.