Besides fake news, the news feed itself is @facebook's biggest problem. Worst of its kind. @instagram is better— Bas Keetelaar 💻 (@Baspower_) July 19, 2017
While publishers might be scared of possible changes Facebook is making to its news feed, is it really that bad? Sure, pages will be hidden in a side menu, but people might reach for that when they run out of interesting content from their friends anyway.
Personally, I have around 120 friends on Facebook, most of which I also really consider friends. There are also a lot of people who have 400 to 1500 “friends”. Those people will probably theoretically never run out of content in their friend feed, especially when they only use the app when they’re bored or waiting.
Most people also like a bunch of pages — news, sports, brands etc. — and they do so because they literally like what that page has to offer. This is the interest-based part of Facebook. They don’t like a brand because they happen to know it in real life like with people from school or work. Don’t you think people will look for content provided by pages anyway, even when it’s hidden?
That’s obviously something Facebook is testing in a few countries right now, but in the end there is something pages can do: make posts that are interesting enough to lure people away from their friends.