In recent years, there has been a growing number of independent writers who are making a living by connecting directly with their readers. That’s why we’re launching Bulletin, a set of publishing and subscription tools to support creators in the US. And today, we’re sharing Bulletin’s first wave of writers.
Through Bulletin, we want to support these creators, and unify our existing tools with something that could more directly support great writing and audio content — from podcasts to Live Audio Rooms — all in one place. We respect the work of writers and want to be clear that anyone who partners with us will have complete editorial independence.
We partnered with a small, diverse group of voices to learn how to best support their work. Some are up-and-coming writers looking to find and build their audience, while others have a long history of work and sizable following.
Bulletin will include support focused on content creation, monetization and audience growth. Key features and integrations include:
Robust Publishing Tools
We’re building tools that enable creators to start their own publications and write long-form articles.
- Each Bulletin creator will have a standalone website under their own brand, and will be able to customize their publication’s name, logo and color palette.
- Creators can customize their articles with multi-media embeds & other styling options.
Sustainable Business Models
We want creators to build sustainable independent businesses on their own terms.
- Bulletin writers will keep all of their subscription revenue for the length of these partnerships, and will have the ability to take their subscriber lists and content with them. Subscription payments will be securely handled by Facebook Pay, allowing subscribers to pay with a credit card, debit card or PayPal account.
- Writers are able to offer a range of subscription-based features, including content, commenting abilities and Facebook groups accessible only by subscribers.
- We will also have analytics tools to help writers understand their audience and grow their subscribers over time.
- And to start, we’re offering a multi-year licensing deal to give these writers time to build a relationship with their readers.
Discovery and Distribution
We want to connect audiences with a range of new and diverse voices, and enable them to go deeper into the topics they care about.
- Bulletin content will be eligible for distribution in Facebook News and other discovery surfaces to help audiences easily find it and subscribe.
- We’ll include tools to distribute podcasts in addition to longform writing, including externally-hosted podcasts and additional audio features coming soon.
- Bulletin will integrate with Facebook Pages to enable publishing across various multimedia formats.
Building Community
Bulletin writers will have an opportunity to foster deeper connections with their audiences on Facebook.
- They can create Facebook groups, free or subscriber-only, to nurture a community of readers. Within their groups, they’ll also have the ability to create subscriber-only content or host subscriber-only conversations.
- Writers will have the ability to leverage Facebook’s existing tools like Facebook Live or Live Audio Rooms to continue the discussion with their communities.
- To help writers keep discussions respectful, we’ll also offer comment moderation tools, like the ability for writers to control who can comment (such as paid subscribers only), and turn off comments.
We’re also offering third-party perks, including legal resources, design support and assistance with financial services.
Throughout this year, we’ll roll out new investments, products and services aimed to support more independent writers and experts. We’re working on more ways for writers to promote their work across other platforms outside of Facebook and to make it easier for them to collaborate with other creators.
We’ll share more as the initiative develops and as we bring more creators on board. In the meantime, to see the full list of writers and their articles visit fyi.bulletin.com.