Bulletin was an online newsletter platform launched by

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

on July 6, 2021, that allows notable writers to make announcements directly to their subscribers. Its competitors include

Substack Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription-based content, including newsletters, podcasts, and video. It allows writers to send digital content directl ...

, of which Bulletin was called a "near-clone." Writers participating in the platform's launch included

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast ''Revisionist ...

Mitch Albom Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958) is an American author, journalist, and musician. As of 2021, he has sold 40 million books worldwide. Having achieved national recognition for sports writing in his early career, he turned to writing inspi ...

, Tan France, Jessica Yellin, Jane Wells,

Erin Andrews Erin Jill Andrews (born May 4, 1978) is an American sportscaster and television personality. She rose to prominence as a correspondent on the American cable sports channel ESPN after joining the network in 2004. She later joined Fox Sports in 2 ...

and Dorie Greenspan. Facebook CEO

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born May 14, 1984) is an American businessman who co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling sharehold ...

stated that Bulletin represented the first time that the company had "built a project that is directly for journalists and individual writers." In October 2022 Meta announced the shutdown of Bulletin. The platform went into read only mode in January 2023 and became unavailable in April 2023.

History

Facebook announced Bulletin as its online newsletter platform on June 29, 2021. and launched by the company on July 6, 2021. Facebook CEO

touted the service by saying that Bulletin represented the first time that the company had "built a project that is directly for journalists and individual writers." Writers participating in the platform's launch included

, Tan France, Jessica Yellin, Jane Wells,

and Dorie Greenspan.

Criticism

Unlike competitor such as

, Facebook indicated upon service's launch that it would not take a cut of subscription fees of writers using that platform. According to ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' technology writer Will Oremus, the move was criticized by those who viewed it as a form of

predatory pricing Predatory pricing, also known as price slashing, is a commercial pricing strategy which involves reducing the retail prices to a level lower than competitors to eliminate competition. Selling at lower prices than a competitor is known as underc ...

intended by Facebook to force those competitors out of business. Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director of the

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

Open Markets, called for the government to reexamine predatory pricing as a violation of

antitrust law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...

, saying, "We want companies to compete by making better products, investing in new equipment and tech — not purely relying on their financial advantages to capture market share."

References

External links

{{Authority control Facebook 2021 establishments in California Internet properties established in 2021 2021 establishments in the United States Products introduced in 2021 Proprietary cross-platform software Social media Online companies of the United States Blog hosting services