Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook may pay publishers to put their stuff in a dedicated news section

Thats a major pivot for Facebook, which has tried several strategies to work with news publishers but with a few exceptions hasnt paid them directly for their content. Instead, the company has tried to entice publishers to share their stuff on Facebook by rewarding them with eyeballs, or a share of advertising dollars.

Zuckerbergs video is the first public appearance of an idea Facebook executives have been discussing and tinkering with for months. Both outgoing product boss Chris Cox and Campbell Brown, the companys head of news partnerships, have championed the project, and Facebook has tested the idea of a dedicated news tab internally.

Over the weekend, in an op-ed he published in the Washington Post, Zuckerberg asked world leaders to help create new regulations for Facebook and other internet companies.

This time around, Zuckerberg isnt suggesting Facebook would quarantine all news into the new tab; instead, it would create a section for people who want to use Facebook as a dedicated newsreader, comparing it to the dedicated video tab Facebook has built up over the past few years.

And as Zuckerberg notes in his comments, he isnt sure whether Facebook should be curating a mix of news for users or letting them pick most of what they want to see.

Apple has signed some news publishers including the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and Vox Media, which owns this site.