Facebook to offer ‘News’ tab for users — and pay (some) publishers for their work

Facebook plans to launch a “News” tab on Friday that will offer stories from hundreds of news organizations, some of which will be paid fees for supplying content to the service, people familiar with the plan say.

The move, which will put the social media giant squarely back into the news-delivery business after having de-emphasized it last year, is seen within the news industry as a step toward the long-sought goal of having technology companies pay for the content they deliver to users. The News tab will also put Facebook into direct competition with the news aggregation services offered by Silicon Valley rivals Google and Apple.