Facebook, giving back publishers a piece of their identities, is letting them display their logos alongside headlines. It's a move meant to appease media partners that feel they've lost the power of their brands when posting articles to social media.
On Tuesday, the social network released new tools for publishers to show their logos next to headlines in the trending and search sections so readers know the source of the information. Brand recognition is no small issue for publishers, who have been lamenting the loss of their brands in social media news feeds, where all headlines and story layouts tend to look the same.
The uniformity of Facebook's style has absorbed the distinct newsroom styles of classic publications ranging from The New York Times and Washington Post to Vanity Fair and Sports Illustrated.
"When people see those three red letters, they know it symbolizes trusted, reliable and real news, so any effort by Facebook to emphasis the brand and credibility of a story benefits the audience as well as the publisher," Samantha Barry, CNN's executive producer of social and emerging media, said in a statement.
In its blog post announcing the new logo option, Facebook noted a Pew Research survey in which only 56 percent of readers recalled the source of news read through social media sites.
"By surfacing publisher logos next to article links, we want to make it easier for publishers to extend their brand identity on Facebook—to enhance people's awareness of the source of content," the social network wrote.
Facebook also noted that it eventually will expand where publishers can show their logos to all places news appears.
Logos next to articles is just one of the recommendations coming out of Facebook's journalism project, which launched in January. The project is one way Facebook works with media partners to evolve the platform so publishers can keep posting content there while finding new sources of revenue and audiences.
Facebook also noted that it will eventually expand where publishers can show their logos from the "trending" and "search" sections to all places news appears.
