On March 13, 2026, Meta said it was expanding the range of real-time content inside Meta AI. The company added new partnerships with News Corp, Le Figaro, Prisa, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, so users who ask news-related questions can get answers and links drawn from these publishers. Meta says this should make its AI more timely, accurate, and balanced, while also sending readers to the original articles for more detail. (about.fb.com)
This was not Meta’s first move into news. In December 2025, it announced earlier deals with CNN, Fox News, Fox Sports, Le Monde Group, People Inc., The Daily Caller, The Washington Examiner, and USA TODAY. At the same time, Meta has been pushing Meta AI across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, the web, and its standalone app. In other words, Meta is not treating AI as a side tool anymore. It is building AI into the places where people already spend their time. (about.fb.com)
So, is AI becoming a new entrance to the news? The answer seems to be: slowly, yes. Reuters Institute research says about 7% of people across 48 markets used a chatbot for news weekly in 2025, and among those users, the most common reason was to get the latest news. In the United States, Pew Research found that 9% of adults get news from AI chatbots often or sometimes, although fewer than 1% say they prefer chatbots over other news sources. That suggests AI is growing as a first stop for quick updates, especially when people want speed and convenience. (ora.ox.ac.uk)
But there is a big concern for publishers. A 2026 Reuters Institute report says news leaders expect search traffic to fall by 43% in the next three years, and Chartbeat data in the same report showed Google search referrals to more than 2,500 publisher sites fell 33% worldwide between November 2024 and November 2025. So AI may become a new front door to news, but only if it still leads people to the journalists who do the reporting. Meta’s decision to include links is a sign that even in the AI era, original news still matters. (ora.ox.ac.uk)










