ABC News teams with Facebook

Cory Bergman November 25th, 2007

In Facebook’s first formal partnership with a news organization, ABC News is helping power Facebook’s politics section, complete with surveys, discussions, polling and video. ABC News’ political reporters are also on Facebook. “There are debates going on at all times within Facebook,” David Westin, the president of ABC News and a new Facebook member, said in an interview. “This allows us to participate in those debates, both by providing information and by learning from the users.”

Note that ABC News’ section is different than Facebook’s new product pages, which many media companies are setting up. (If you work at one, it’s probably a good idea to set up a product page with your brand. It’s free. And if you haven’t already, become a fan of Lost Remote on Facebook.)

Update: CNET blogger Caroline McCarthy says she’s skeptical that ABC News will get any traction on Facebook: “ABC News doesn’t seem to have caught onto the fact that Facebook’s user base sees the site as a platform for social recreation, not information consumption.”