Facebook’s newsletter platform Bulletin is now live – TechCrunch

The cool new factor on Fb is for Mark Zuckerberg to drop product information in dwell audio rooms. So immediately, Zuckerberg took to his model’s Clubhouse competitor to announce its subsequent new factor: Bulletin, a e-newsletter platform.

Bulletin is constructed on a separate platform from Fb — on its web site, the FAQ states that that is to “allow creators to develop their viewers in methods that aren’t solely depending on the Fb platform.” You don’t want a Fb account to subscribe to a e-newsletter, however Bulletin depends on Fb’s infrastructure, together with using Fb Pay to buy premium subscriptions and be a part of subscriber-only teams and dwell audio rooms.

Rivals like Substack take a “hands-off

” method to content material moderation, permitting anybody to begin a e-newsletter. However each author at present on Fb’s Bulletin was hand-picked to contribute. Nonetheless, Substack has acquired scrutiny for subsidizing anti-trans rhetoric by means of its controversial Substack Professional program, which commissioned explicit writers to put in writing on Substack. So, Bulletin gained’t be resistant to the problems that plague Substack regardless of its closely curated mannequin.

The preliminary slate of writers on Bulletin consists of Malcom Gladwell, Mitch Albom, Erin Andrews and Tan France — the FAQ additionally notes that its beta program is U.S.-centric, with solely two worldwide writers in the mean time (“We’ll look to incorporate extra worldwide creators after our beta program launch,” Bulletin says.) Fb is paying its writers up entrance for his or her contributions, and to this point, doesn’t plan to take a reduce of their earnings. If writers select to maneuver off the platform, they’ll have the power to take their subscriber lists with them.