EDITOR&PUBLISHER – 01/05/2019
Rob Tornoe
Facebook.
No word has confounded and frustrated journalists more over the past few years than the name of Mark Zuckerberg’s powerful social media engine, which jumps effortlessly from a platform used to share baby photos to a power tool used to swing elections.
Since its humble beginnings in 2004 as a place for college students, Facebook quickly outpaced its competition (anyone remember Friendster?) and grew into the world’s largest social media platform, with a global audience of 2.32 billion monthly active users. Or to say it another way, roughly one-third of the planet checks their Facebook page at least once a month.
Not surprisingly, the social media giant has disrupted our entire economy, enriching some businesses while bankrupting others, all while taking a lion’s share of all global digital advertising revenue (second only to Google). But few industries have felt the force of Facebook’s impact than journalism.