Facebook has started the process of killing off online news publishers

We’re excited to announce that everyone who uses the Facebook for iPhone app can now read thousands of Instant Articles every day in News Feed. Starting today, people will see a lightning bolt on the top right corner of some stories shared in News Feed. The lightning bolt indicates it’s an Instant Article. When you tap the story, it loads ten times faster than a standard mobile web article. Instant Articles not only connect readers to stories faster; they also provide a richer reading experience than standard mobile web articles, with dynamic features that make the content more fluid, interactive and immersive. The Instant Articles experience is seamless for readers. When a friend or publisher shares a link on Facebook, the enhanced experience is displayed automatically if an Instant Article version is available. Instant Articles are simply the articles already in your Facebook News Feed, made faster and more beautiful. We’ve been beta testing Instant Articles with a small group of people on Facebook for iPhone for a few months, and we know readers love them. The enhanced experience inspires people to share Instant Articles with their friends more often than they do with standard web articles.