Some people are still grappling with the idea that Facebook is no longer a reliable partner for media — one that provides a gusher of traffic in exchange for encouraging users to share links. News flash: Meta’s flagship app hasn’t been reliable for a long time. And it won’t be for the foreseeable future.
This reality has a corporate body count. A whole cohort of brassy and ambitious media startups betting on social distribution, like BuzzFeed and Vice, has been humbled. And while their struggles are well documented, many smaller media operations, particularly hyperlocal publishers who are sometimes the only thing standing between their communities becoming news deserts, have been feeling the pain of Meta’s retrenchment.