In the news: Facebook is entering the media arena with plans to host publisher content.

Facebook has thrown its hat into the publishing arena with announced plans to host magazine and newspaper articles and videos. So far, several major media companies are rumored to have signed up. The partnerships will mean shared ad revenue and increased multichannel exposure.

So how will the Facebook content work? Michael Sebastian of AdAge.com writes, "When Facebook users click a headline from one of those media companies, they will stay within Facebook and not shift over to the publishers' site. The concept is part of a broader narrative taking hold in the media world: After years of trying to lure readers to their own sites, media companies are now considering which social-media sites and messaging apps could host their content instead."

Read more about Facebook's content hosting plans here and here.

Also Notable

Print Magazines "Not Necessarily Facing Armageddon"

In a March 17 column ("Why Print Magazines Are Not Necessarily Facing Armageddon"), publishing guru Bo Sacks levels with readers about the state of the print magazine industry. "To be truthful," he writes, "most of the data is negative for print magazines, but not for every magazine." Magazines are undergoing constant transformation as they experiment with various platforms and revenue streams. Still, Sacks predicts that once the transitional phase has passed, "the print publishing part of the media business will still generate multiple billions of dollars. It's that simple, oh yes, and that complex too." Read his complete analysis, with graphs for visual reference, here.

Magazine Audience on the Rise

Total magazine audience was up 12.6 percent from February 2014 to February 2015. The single greatest contributor to this growth was mobile audience, which soared a staggering 78 percent in one year. Leading the audience pack were ESPN the Magazine (92.8 million), People (85 million), and Better Homes and Gardens (49.1 million.) Read more here.

Using Video to Grow Magazine Audience

The recent rise in overall magazine audience is thanks in part to a surge in magazine video content consumption. According to Keith J. Kelly of the New York Post, "video is showing explosive growth for publishers. In the first two months of the year, it grew 73 percent compared with the same period a year ago." Read more about the surge in magazine video content here.

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