NEW YORK: Facebook announced on Tuesday that it will invest $300 million over three years in various projects related to journalism, especially to promote local news, which has been hit hard in the digital age. The move comes with online platforms under pressure for dominating the internet advertising ecosystem, making it harder for news organisations to make a transition to digital.

“People want more local news, and local newsrooms are looking for more support,” Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice president in charge of global news partnerships, said in a blog post. “That’s why today we’re announcing an expanded effort around local news in the years ahead.” The initiative includes a $5 million endowment to the Pulitzer Center to launch “Bringing Stories Home”, which will foster coverage on topics that affect local communities — funding at least 12 local in-depth, multimedia reporting projects each year.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2019