Facebook is entering the subscription newsletter business. Bulletin is a new service that allows writers to create paid and free newsletters. These newsletters can be shared on Facebook, sent to subscribers' inboxes and posted to the internet. The best perk is that Facebook won't charge writers a launch fee and writers keep full ownership of their work as well as the subscriber list.Malcolm Gladwell, Tan France and Erin Andrews are some of the debut authorsFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke live on the phone about the new platform. He said that it is designed to empower independent writers and help them reach new audiences. Facebook launched with Malcolm Gladwell, Tan France and Erin Andrews as its first members. They will cover a variety of topics including finance, science, medicine, sports, and finance.Bulletin is an answer to Substack's growing popularity. Substack has been used by many prominent writers including Anne Helen Petersen and Glenn Greenwald. The company is actively seeking talent and offering guaranteed payments. Twitter recently bought Revue, a newsletter platform. However, it has not done much to integrate Revue into its social network. Substack gets a 10% cut on subscriptions while Revue receives a 5% cut.Zuckerberg said Bulletin is part Facebook's ongoing growth of creator monetization tools. He stated that the goal is to eventually support millions of creative workers across the company.Bulletin is not accepting signups at this time. Facebook has hired a few writers to help with beta testing and said it will continue adding more writers over time.
