In January, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was making big changes to its social media platform, prioritizing personal posts over business pages, frustrating publishers who use Facebook as a tool for reaching potential subscribers. Facebook is trying to make up for that with a $3 million investment in a three-month pilot program called the Local News Subscriptions Accelerator. Through this program, announced by Campbell Brown, head of news partnerships, on Wednesday, Facebook hopes to help metro newspapers in the U.S. grow their subscriber base.

‘We often talk to publishers about what the future of journalism looks like and local news publishers tell us that digital subscribers are critical to the long-term sustainability of their business. We know Facebook is one part of the strategy to engage readers and ultimately drive paid subscriptions,’ said Brown.

As part of the Facebook Journalism Project, the accelerator program will work with 10 to 15 metro news outlets to help publishers generate subscriptions both inside and outside of Facebook. Digital media consultant Tim Griggs, a former New York Times executive, will develop the curriculum which will help publishers understand their digital audiences and build marketing plans aimed at growing subscriptions.

Brown said representatives from participating news outlets will meet in person each month to get coaching from digital subscription experts and participate in weekly training on a variety of topics. Coaches will help publishers tailor programs that address an organization’s specific needs. Through grant funding, publishers will have the resources needed to grow their subscription marketing efforts.

Participating publishers to date include:

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• The Boston Globe
• The Chicago Tribune
• The Dallas Morning News
• The Denver Post
• The Miami Herald
• The Minneapolis Star Tribune
• The Omaha World-Herald
• The Philadelphia Inquirer
• The Seattle Times
• The San Francisco Chronicle
• The Tennessean
• Newsday

Facebook has tapped The Lenfest Institute to help with the project.

‘The Accelerator has been designed by publishers for publishers,’ said Jim Friedlich, executive director of The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. ‘The workshop and grant program address one of our most significant opportunities for new revenue to fund local journalism. We look forward to sharing the learnings with news organizations worldwide.’

Last week Facebook announced another partnership as part of its Facebook Journalism Project – a partnership with the Society of Professional Journalists to launch the SPJ Training Program for journalists. Those who participate in the training will learn how to use Facebook for reporting and storytelling, including the use of Facebook Live, Facebook Groups, video, Insights and other features.

Insider Take:

Two months ago, Facebook essentially told publishers that personal posts were more important than news and business posts, and the social media platform would decide what people would see first.

In fact, Zuckerberg went so far as to say that connecting with friends and family strengthened us, but reading articles and watching videos ‘may not be as good.’ He even told publishers their news would be deprioritized, unless you want to pay for boosted posts or Facebook advertising.

Now Zuckerberg is saying, wait a minute, we do want to help you, and he throws $3 million into a grant fund to show how much he wants to help news organizations succeed in the subscription world. While $3 million may seem generous, split among 10 to 15 newspapers, that pot won’t yield much in terms of financial support for new subscription initiatives. Compared to Facebook’s fourth quarter net income of $4.27 billion, $3 million is a paltry sum to try to undo the damage Facebook has potentially done with its algorithm shift.

We want to believe that Facebook has altruistic intentions, but it feels like more a PR move than a genuine gesture. We hope they prove us wrong.