Facebook exploring deals with media outlets for news section: report

Facebook is offering media outlets millions of dollars to use their content in a news section that the social media giant hopes to launch this year, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

People familiar with the matter told the Journal that Facebook is offering as much as $3 million a year to publishers to use their news articles, headlines and smaller snippets of stories.

{mosads}Facebook has reportedly approached Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones and the Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC News.

It’s unclear whether Facebook has reached an agreement with any of the publishers.

Mariloly Melguizo O’Rourk, a spokeswoman for Facebook, declined to comment on the Journal report but confirmed to The Hill that the company was planning to launch the news tab this fall.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in April announced plans for a separate news section aggregating media content.

Facebook and Google have been criticized for their impact on the news industry.

In June, a House Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on the issue, focusing on the two companies’ massive share of U.S. digital ad revenue, as part of lawmakers’ antitrust investigation into Silicon Valley.

Updated at 5:02 p.m.