Axios

What did BuzzFeed do?

CNN published a carefully reported story Tuesday on intelligence officials warning Trump and Obama that Russians were trying to compromise Trump. The basis of this was a 35-page dossier alleging Trump did weird sex things and alleged his inner circle had been colluding with Russia. CNN didn't publish that dossier, because they couldn't confirm the details.

BuzzFeed also had the dossier, and they published it.

Facebook announced a new initiative Wednesday called the "Facebook Journalism Project" that aims to strengthen its relationship with the news industry.

What's in it:

• Testing new storytelling formats: Facebook will begin testing packages of stories within Instant Articles so readers can see multiple stories from the same news outlet at the same time.
• Free resources for journalists: Facebook will now conduct a series of free "e-learning courses" on Facebook products and tools for journalists. They will also offer journalists free CrowdTangle subscriptions for social media monitoring. They will also begin trainings for local newsrooms through non-profit news organizations and academia.
• More resources to curb fake news: They announced another program to work with third-party fact checkers to identify hoaxes on Facebook. They also announced partnerships with non-profits and academia to help promote news literacy.

Less than six months since Instagram blatantly copied Snapchat's "Stories" feature, the photo-sharing app says that 150 million people are now using it daily.

That's as many as Snapchat's total daily active users.

The big deal: When Instagram announced its copycat feature in August, many doubted that it would catch on, arguing instead that Snapchat's appeal was greater than just one feature. But now it seems that Instagram's bet is paying off—and its hypothesis is being proven right.

Instagram's users are well known for primarily worrying about publishing flawless photos. The Stories feature, which lets people post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours, is keeping them from hopping to Snapchat.

Facebook announced Wednesday a new initiative to partner their engineers with German news organization BILD's to test offering free subscription trials to engaged readers from within their Instant Article platform.

The tech giant also confirmed a story first reported by Recode Monday that they are exploring a new video ad format:

• Short ads in videos at least 90-seconds long.
• Will share 55 cents to every dollar with their publishing partners.

Why it matters: News companies have realized that tech companies, primarily Google and Facebook, are gobbling up the bulk of their ad revenues. These are ways for news publishers to partner with these platforms to make money, rather than fighting a growing trend.