Facebook has hired a former television journalist to help improve its relationship with news organizations.
Campbell Brown, a former NBC News correspondent and CNN host who went on to become an advocate for school reform, will serve as Facebook’s head of news partnerships, the company announced Friday.
In that role, Brown will be the liaison between Facebook and news organizations, which have grown increasingly concerned about the social media giant’s ability to exploit their content. While news organizations rely on Facebook for distribution to its audience of nearly 2 billion users, more and more of those eyeballs are accessing that content exclusively on Facebook, hurting the media industry’s ad revenue.
“I will be working directly with our partners to help them understand how Facebook can expand the reach of their journalism, and contribute value to their businesses,” Brown said in a post on her Facebook page. “That also means making sure there is ongoing feedback from publishers as Facebook develops new products and tools for news organizations.”
The role is not editorial, however, and Brown will not make any decisions about what news content appears on Facebook. For months, Facebook has struggled to come to terms with its role as a news organization, relying on users to flag fake news and inappropriate content.
Brown previously served as an NBC News correspondent and co-anchor of “Weekend Today,” then as a CNN primetime anchor. Since leaving CNN in 2010, she has become an advocate for school reform, opposing professor tenure and drawing heavy criticism from teachers’ unions.
