The very first opinion column I wrote as news media editor for BarrettMedia.com carried one blunt verdict: Facebook was a dead platform for news media. I told readers that lighting a fire in the kitchen would be a better use of their time than posting content to that blue app. That verdict just changed.
Facebook confirmed last week that it’s testing a video-first experience on its mobile app. Open the app, and instead of the familiar news feed, you’ll land on a full-screen, TikTok-style video player. Meta says the classic feed isn’t disappearing — it’ll simply shift to a second tab, and users can opt back into it whenever they want. Still, the intent behind this test is impossible to miss.
Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, framed the shift around where people already spend their time. He said video is where conversations happen, where communities form, and where commerce is starting to take root. In other words, Facebook wants to own the exact behaviors that used to define its rivals. That’s not just a talking point, either. Reels has grown into a $50 billion-a-year business across Facebook and Instagram, and it now generates more advertising revenue than YouTube does. Meta wants a bigger piece of the short-form video pie, and it’s willing to reshape its flagship app to get there.
Why Creators Should Pay Attention
Meta isn’t testing this out of boredom. The company reportedly lost 20 million users across its apps in the first quarter of 2026 alone, even as TikTok crossed a billion monthly users in record time. Losing cultural relevance while still holding billions of accounts is a real risk, and Meta knows it.
So the company is leaning hard into video discovery, and it’s opening its wallet to make that happen.
Facebook has reportedly been offering creators higher CPMs than YouTube or TikTok pay for similar content. That’s real money, and it’s landing in front of hundreds of millions of users who still open that app every single day.
Nobody can say how long that financial advantage will last. Advertisers chase attention, and once Meta locks creators in, those rates could shift fast. For now, though, the door is open, and it’s worth walking through.
What This Means For News Media
News organizations abandoned Facebook years ago, and for good reason. Referral traffic dried up, engagement cratered, and the algorithm buried anything that looked like a headline. A video-first Facebook, however, changes that calculation. Short-form clips, breaking news explainers, and behind-the-scenes footage all fit naturally into this new full-screen format, and none of them need a click-through to succeed.
Meanwhile, the audience is still massive. Facebook’s Marketplace alone reportedly lists 430 million items every month, which tells you the app remains a daily habit for an enormous number of people. Reaching those people with video content costs a newsroom almost nothing beyond the time it takes to produce it. It’s the kind of math that’s hard to ignore in a media business built on shrinking margins. Meanwhile, the CPMs make testing worthwhile again. For an industry that’s spent years chasing distribution, that combination is hard to overlook.
None of this means news media companies should pour every resource back into Facebook. Caution still matters, and diversification always beats dependence on a single platform. Facebook has burned newsrooms before, and memories like that don’t fade fast. But the era of writing Facebook off completely might be over. If your newsroom or your channel walked away from that platform, now’s a good time to reconsider. The fire I told you to light years ago? Maybe let it burn down a little before you strike another match.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.