Facebook has been particularly concerned with optimizing performance on Android (which has a global market share of nearly 90%), since international readers on slower connections consume up to 40% more Instant Articles than mobile web articles. The claim that Instant Articles load 10 times faster than standard mobile web pages and result in more engagement is an enticing offer to publishers. As mentioned earlier, Facebook is also the top referrer for news. In short, if a substantial amount of your traffic comes from Facebook, you should look into Instant Articles.

The ad model for Facebook Instant Articles allows publishers to sell their own inventory and keep all ad revenue, while extra inventory is sold by Facebook, which takes a 30% cut. Built on Facebook’s Audience Network, some say the ad network has allowed them to monetize content better than they could have themselves. Still, many are not impressed by the lack of control over content, and other publishers are more bearish on returns.

There are a few additional stipulations for submitting content as Instant Articles. Publishers must have a Facebook Page and use Facebook’s Business Manager app. They must also have at least 5 articles that Facebook can review.

An obvious downside is that offering content on Facebook’s own closed ecosystem makes it harder to hook users into additional publisher content. Publishers also have less control over navigation and media. Some worry that their own branding is eroded by using Facebook’s platform, which offers few differentiating design elements. Facebook also has final say on whether or not publishers will be approved.

Facebook does allow for analytics integrations, though depending on a website’s setup, dark social traffic could occur as users navigate to other content from the Facebook app.

FBIA CMS Plugins/Modules:

Facebook Instant Articles Publisher Approval

SDK - Instant Articles - Documentation - Facebook for Developers

Apple News

With Apple News Format, you can create engaging content for Apple News. Elegant layouts, beautiful typography, photo galleries, videos, and animations bring your stories to life. You can author once and News will optimize for all iOS devices, so your readers will have a great experience no matter which device they’re using.

- Developer.Apple.com/News-Publisher

Apple News was first launched in September 2015, replacing the old Newsstand app. It lives completely within Apple’s own ecosystem. Fortunately, initial Apple News setup is relatively painless. It hooks into existing RSS feeds, and there are already integrations available for most CMSs. As an audience bonus to publishers, the Apple News app comes preinstalled on all iOS devices in the US, UK, and Australia.



