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Scoop: Inside Facebook's new plan for news

Mike Allen, author of AM

Facebook executives tell Axios they're hiring seasoned journalists to help curate a forthcoming "News Tab" that they hope will change how millions get news.

Why it matters: News Tab is an effort by Facebook to restore the sanity and credibility that's lost in the chaos of our main feeds. Facebook will personalize the News Tab, so it will need a massive amount of content, from the New York Jets to gardening.

News Tab, a personal passion of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is also an effort by Facebook to develop a healthier relationship with publishers, many of whom have had their business models destroyed by social platforms.

  • Facebook will pay dozens of publishers to license content for News Tab, and news from many more will be included.
  • The Wall Street Journal reported that the largest partners will be paid millions of dollars a year.
  • News Tab will try to give credit to the outlet that broke a story, rather than an aggregator.

Campbell Brown, Facebook's head of news partnerships, said: "Our goal with the News tab is to provide a personalized, highly relevant experience ... The majority of stories people will see will appear in the tab via algorithmic selection."

  • A small team of journalists will pick stories for a Top News section.

Last year, Facebook killed Trending Topics, populated by contractors, after being accused of bias.

  • "We learned a lot from Trending," a Facebook executive told me. "This is a completely different product."

What's next: A News Tab test for 200,000 users will begin in October, with a rollout to all U.S. users early next year.

Go deeper: Facebook says there isn't enough local news for its users

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