Facebook Unveils News Creation and Curation App 'Paper'

Facebook today announced Paper, a news creation and curation tool that ties into a user's Facebook account. The app is the first product to come out of Facebook Creative Labs, a division within Facebook made of small teams who are dedicated to startup-style projects.

Paper is split into a news reader that pulls its content from both a user's Facebook News Feed and from well-known online publications, featuring a magazine-style layout with sections that range from technology news to animals. Facebook will also reportedly assign a team of editors to curate the best and most popular online content for users, and a composition tool that allows users to create their own status updates rich with media will be available as well.

Speaking to Re/code, Mike Matas, product design lead for Paper, explained why the company moved beyond a visual newsreader like Flipboard [Direct Link] and created both a news reading and creating tool.

“As you start changing the way you’re displaying this content, we hope that it will change the way people think about posting content,” Michael Matas, Paper’s product design lead, said in an interview. “Because the two are obviously really connected.”

But just as important, as Matas explains it, “It’s no fun to make a bunch of great stuff if no one ever sees it.”

Paper by Facebook will be available from the iOS App Store in the US starting February 3rd, with international availability to be determined. A visual walkthrough of the app is available on Facebook's website.