BUSINESS
Saturday, October 26, 2019
East Oregonian
Facebook launches a news section
By BARBARA ORTUTAY
AND TALI ARBEL
AP Technology Writers
MENLO PARK, Calif. —
Over the course of its 15-year
history, Facebook has var-
iously ignored news orga-
nizations while eating their
advertising revenue, courted
them for video projects it
subsequently abandoned, and
then largely cut their stories
out of its newsfeeds.
Now it plans to pay them
for news headlines — report-
edly millions of dollars in
some cases.
Enter the “News Tab,” a
new section in the Facebook
mobile app that will display
headlines — and nothing else
— from the Wall Street Jour-
nal, the Washington Post,
BuzzFeed News, Business
Insider, NBC, USA Today
and the Los Angeles Times,
among others. Local sto-
ries from several of the larg-
est U.S. cities will also make
the grade; headlines from
smaller towns are on their
way, Facebook says.
Tapping on those head-
lines will take you directly
to publisher websites or apps,
if you have any installed.
Which is more or less what
publishers have been request-
ing from Facebook for years.
It’s potentially a big step
for a platform that has long
struggled with both stamp-
ing out misinformation and
making nice with struggling
purveyors of news. Though
media watchers remain skep-
tical that Facebook is really
committed to helping sustain
the news industry.
Facebook declined to say
who is getting paid and how
much, saying only that it will
be paying “a range of pub-
lishers for access to all of
their content.” Just last year,
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said
he wasn’t sure it “makes
sense” to pay news outlets for
their material.
But now, as Zucker-
berg told The Associ-
ated Press in an interview,
“there’s an opportunity to
FACEBOOK
CLARIFIES
POLITICAL AD
POLICY
AP Photo/Thibault Camus
A Facebook logo is displayed during a start-up companies
gathering at Paris’ Station F, in Paris.
set up new long term, stable
fi nancial relationships with
publishers.”
News executives have
long been unhappy about
the extent to which digi-
tal giants like Facebook
make use of their stories —
mostly by displaying head-
lines and short summaries
when users post news links.
A bipartisan bill introduced
in Congress this year would
grant an antitrust exemption
to news companies, letting
them band together to nego-
tiate payments from the big
tech platforms.
“It’s a good direction that
they’re willing for the fi rst
time to value and pay for
news content,” said David
Chavern, head of the News
Media Alliance, a publisher
trade group. “The trouble is
that most publishers aren’t
included.”
Zuckerberg said Face-
book aims to set up partner-
ships with a “wide range” of
publishers.
“We think that this is an
opportunity to build some-
thing quite meaningful
here,” he said. “We’re going
to have journalists curating
this, we are really focused
on provenance and branding
and where the stories come
from.”
In a statement, the Los
Angeles Times said it expects
the Facebook effort will help
expand its readership and
digital subscribers.
Facebook killed its pre-
vious effort to curate news,
the ill-fated Trending topics,
in 2018. Conservatives com-
plained about political bias,
leading Facebook to fi re its
human editors and automate
the section until it began
recycling false stories, after
which the social giant shut it
down entirely.
But what happens when
the sprawling social net-
work plays news editor? An
approach that sends people
news based on what they’ve
liked before could over time
elevate stories with greater
“emotional resonance” over
news that “allows public dis-
course to take place,” said
Edward Wasserman, dean
of the graduate journalism
program at the University of
California-Berkeley.
“It deepens my concern
that they’ll be applying Face-
book logic to news judg-
ment,” he added.
The social network has
come under criticism for
its news judgment recently.
In September, it removed
a fact-check from Science
Feedback that called out an
anti-abortion activist’s video
for claiming that abortion is
never medically necessary.
Republican senators had
complained about the fact
check.
Facebook says a small
team of “seasoned” journal-
ists it employs will choose
the headlines for the “Today’s
Story” section of the tab,
designed to “catch you up”
on the day’s news. The rest
of the news section will be
WASHINGTON — Face-
book reiterated its policy
of not removing mislead-
ing or bogus political ads
Thursday, clarifying its
own policies after CEO
Mark Zuckerberg off ered
Congress confusing and
sometimes incomplete
testimony on the subject.
On Wednesday, in re-
sponse to questions from
House Financial Services
Chairwoman Maxine
Waters, Zuckerberg
seemed to suggest Face-
book did use third-party
fact-checkers to verify
political ads. He contra-
dicted himself moments
later, saying the compa-
ny did not want to get
involved in verifying the
truth of political claims.
Facebook on Thurs-
day sought to set the
record straight, noting
that while it will not
fact check political ads
from candidates, it does
evaluate the accuracy
of political ads from polit-
ical advocacy groups or
political action commit-
tees.
— Associated Press
populated with stories algo-
rithmically based on users’
interests.
That sounds similar to
the approach taken by Apple
News, a free iPhone app. But
Apple’s effort to contract
with news organizations has
been slow to take off. Apple
News Plus, a $10-a-month
paid version, remains pri-
marily a hub for magazines;
other news publishers have
largely sat it out.
Apple’s service report-
edly offered publishers only
half the revenue it pulled in
from subscriptions, divided
according to how popular
publishers were with readers.
Business Oregon
director resigns, heads
for private sector
Chris Harder
has led Business
Oregon since
March 2016
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — The head of
Oregon’s economic devel-
opment agency will be
stepping down at the end
of the year, the agency said
Thursday.
Chris Harder has led
Business Oregon, oversee-
ing a two-year budget of
about $800 million, since
March 2016.
The agency provides
Oregon businesses with
grants, loans and tax incen-
tives to boost employment
and attract employers, and
helps communities update
infrastructure like ports and
water facilities.
Harder is taking a job in
private business in Portland
but isn’t disclosing details
yet, said Nathan Buehler, a
spokesman for the agency.
In a resignation let-
ter dated Oct. 18, Harder
thanked Brown for “the
opportunity to serve” as
director.
Harder is the second
agency director to leave
since Brown’s re-election a
year ago. Matt Garrett, the
longtime head of the Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion, retired in June.
“I am particularly grate-
ful for your support of the
agency and commitment
to our mission to promote
a globally competitive,
diverse, and inclusive econ-
omy,” Harder wrote.
Brown said in a state-
ment that under Harder’s
leadership, the agency “has
developed a solid founda-
tion for its work to sup-
port the economic develop-
ment needs
of
com-
mu nities
throughout
the state.”
“ I ’ m
looking
Harder
forward to
seeing the
work of our team at Busi-
ness Oregon continue with
its focus on rural areas and
its efforts to make sure that
prosperity is shared by all,”
Brown said.
Harder is leaving after
setting ambitious goals for
the agency through 2022.
Last year, Business Ore-
gon adopted a fi ve-year stra-
tegic plan, focused on push-
ing technical innovation,
economic stability in rural
areas, growing small and
middle-market companies,
and creating more economic
opportunities for people of
color, immigrants and tribal
communities.
“We are committed to
working with our custom-
ers, public and private part-
ners, and local and regional
communities across Ore-
gon to continue to make our
state economy one of the
most competitive and suc-
cessful anywhere,” accord-
ing to a report on the plan
issued by Harder and Kanth
Gopalpur, chair of the Ore-
gon Business Development
Commission.
The strategic plan also
calls for the agency to look
internally to make sure it is
“inclusive, transparent and
fi scally healthy.”
In April 2018, allega-
tions emerged of a hostile
work environment at the
agency for older employees
and women. Several months
later, independent investi-
gators reported they found
no “evidence of a wide-
spread toxic work environ-
ment or a pattern of dis-
crimination against females
or older employees.”
Natural gas rates to increase
Cascade Natural
Gas receives
approval for 8.5%
increase
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COUNTY
— The Oregon Public Util-
ity Commission has approved
a rate increase for the state’s
three regulated utilities,
including Cascade Natural
Gas, starting Nov. 1.
According to a news
release by the commis-
sion, the cost of natural gas
being supplied to the utilities
“spiked” over the last year due
to a pipeline explosion that
affected the regional supply.
In the past 10 years, the com-
mission stated, Oregon resi-
dents have seen a decrease in
their rates, other than in 2013
and 2014.
PUC chair Megan Decker
said in a statement that they
appreciated those who testi-
fi ed to remind the committee
that rate increases impact cus-
tomers negatively.
“We recognize that exist-
ing low-income programs
are inadequate at meeting the
needs of all customers to help
address adjustments in rates,
but we’ll continue to fi nd ways
to close that gap,” she said.
Cascade Natural Gas,
which serves Hermiston and
Pendleton, received approval
for an overall increase of
8.5%, raising $5.3 million.
Residential customers using
62 therms per month will see
an increase from $46.69 to
$50.58.
Commercial customers
using 264 therms per month
will see an increase of 11.5%,
from $156.73 to $174.69.
Industrial customers using
1,742 therms per month will
see their bill increase from
$983.63 to $1,119.13.
Avista Natural Gas, which
covers parts of Eastern Ore-
gon and Southern Oregon,
received approval for an over-
all increase of 10% in Novem-
ber, plus a 2.5% increase in
January to cover non-gas
costs.
When both increases are
in place, typical residential
customers using 46 therms
per month will see their
bill increase from $48.11 to
$55.41 at a 15.2% increase.
Commercial
customers
using 197 therms per month
will see an increase from
$174.15 to $194.66. Indus-
trial customers using 3,990
therms per month will see an
increase from $1,640.57 to
$1,910.06.
On the west side of the
state, NW Natural received
approval for a 2.4% increase.
Good Shepherd Health Care System’s
SECOND ANNUAL
Community
Meeting
BRIEFLY
New homes sales
fell in September
WASHINGTON
—
U.S. new home sales fell
slightly in September with
all regions of the country
except the Midwest show-
ing declines.
The Commerce Depart-
ment reported Thursday
that sales of new homes fell
0.7% last month following
a big 6.2% surge in sales in
August. Homes were sold at
a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 701,000, 15.5%
higher than a year ago.
Many economists had
expected sales to keep ris-
ing in September, refl ect-
ing
declining
mort-
gage rates and ultra-low
unemployment.
The median price of a
new home fell 7.9% last
month to $299,400, down
from an August price of
$325,200.
The only region to post
a sales gain was the Mid-
west, where sales rose 6.3%.
Sales in the West fell 3.8%
and were down 2.8% in the
Northeast and a slight 0.2%
in the South.
Developer
awarded grant for
new windows
PENDLETON — Devel-
oper Nate Brusselback was
recently awarded a $10,000
grant from the Energy Trust
of Oregon for upgrades at
his South Hills Apartment
Complex, 248 S.W. 28th
Drive. The grant will help
pay for the replacement of
the complex’s aging alumi-
num windows with ener-
gy-effi cient
vinyl-frame
windows in an effort to help
save residents money on
their energy bills.
While the grant is helpful
in breaking up the cost of
upgrades, Brusselback says
that it amounts to a small
percentage of the $150,000
he expects to spend updat-
ing the units. According to
Brusselback, the incentives
will cover approximately
one-third of the purchase
price of the new windows,
however, Energy Trust
will not cover labor, trim,
reframing or any other addi-
tional project costs.
Despite the cost of the
upgrades,
Brusselback
maintains that they pro-
vide a win-win situation for
himself and the building’s
residents.
“It makes the units nicer
for the tenants, and it gets
me a little bit more bang
for my buck when it comes
to renting them out,” said
Brusselback.
As residents move out,
Brusselback’s team goes
through and upgrades each
unit’s windows in addition
to any necessary mainte-
nance before renting the
unit to an new tenant.
Built in the 1970s, the
South Hills Apartment
Complex is made up of 80
one- and two-bedroom units
and is one of four apartment
complexes that Brusselback
owns in Pendleton.
— Associated Press and
East Oregonian staff
A7
With special guest speaker, Marcus Engel,
author of five best-selling books, honorary
doctorate awardee from the Philadelphia College
of Osteopathic Medicine, and adjunct professor
at the University of Notre Dame.
Good Shepherd Health Care
System cordially invites you
to our 2nd Annual Community
Meeting and Health Fair.
Join us for an evening of fun,
food, raffle prizes, and, most
importantly, learn about the
positive impact GSHCS is
having on the communities
we serve with President &
CEO Dennis E. Burke.
Flu Shots available
from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Limited Supply, First-Come,
First-Served
Wednesday,
October 30, 2019
5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Hermiston High School
Commons & Auditorium
600 S 1st St
Hermiston, OR, 97838
RSVP 541.667.3509
Or register on Eventbrite at
https://gshcsannualcommunity
meeting.eventbrite.com