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By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
Mason County Press and Oceana County Press are strongly encouraging readers to subscribe to the MCP/OCP Daily Briefing as Facebook considers changes that could make it more difficult — and potentially expensive — for publishers and other organizations to share links with their followers.
The Daily Briefing provides subscribers with MCP and OCP headlines delivered directly by email, eliminating the need to rely on Facebook to decide which local stories appear in their feeds. It costs $12 per month or $120 per year, with subscription revenue directly supporting MCP and OCP local news and sports coverage.
The MCP and OCP websites will remain free to read. The Daily Briefing is not a paywall. Rather, it provides readers with a direct and dependable connection to MCP and OCP while helping to financially support the journalism that the publications produce.
The importance of that direct connection has become increasingly apparent as Meta, Facebook’s parent company, tests restrictions on the number of external links some Facebook Pages and Professional Mode accounts can share without purchasing a subscription.
Meta began testing external-link restrictions in late 2025. Under the test, some affected accounts that do not purchase a subscription are limited to two posts containing external links per month.
More recently, the restrictions have appeared as part of Meta’s Meta One subscription offerings. Some affected accounts are being offered plans that allow eight external links per month for about $50, 20 links for about $150 or unlimited external links for about $500 per month.
The restrictions are not currently universal, and Meta originally said news organizations were excluded from its external-link test. As of Wednesday, MCP and OCP have not been notified that their Facebook pages are subject to the restrictions. It remains unclear whether Meta will eventually expand them to news publishers.
For now, MCP and OCP intend to continue sharing stories on Facebook as they normally have. No decision has been made to reduce the number of stories posted there.
But Meta’s experiment illustrates why MCP and OCP believe readers should establish a direct connection with their local news source rather than depend exclusively on a social media platform.
Following MCP or OCP on Facebook does not guarantee that every story will appear in a reader’s feed. Facebook controls which posts users see and can change its algorithms, policies, monetization programs and business model at any time. We have heard feedback from readers that they often miss stories on their feed that we have published.
Whether Meta ultimately applies its link restrictions to news publishers remains to be seen. But the larger issue will remain regardless of what Meta decides: MCP and OCP do not control Facebook.
The Daily Briefing changes that relationship.
Subscribers receive the day’s MCP and OCP headlines directly in their email inboxes. Those headlines are linked to the stories published on the website. Extra editions are also sent when significant breaking news warrants them. Readers do not have to wait for an algorithm to determine whether a story appears in their social media feed.
Just as importantly, Daily Briefing subscriptions provide direct financial support for locally produced journalism. Instead of that relationship being mediated by a national technology company, the subscription establishes a direct connection between MCP and OCP and the people who rely on their reporting.
MCP and OCP will continue to maintain a presence on Facebook and use the platform to distribute news and interact with their communities. But Meta’s latest experiment is another reminder that Facebook can change the rules governing that relationship at any time.
For that reason, MCP and OCP strongly encourage readers — particularly those who currently rely on Facebook for their local news — to subscribe to the Daily Briefing.
The websites will remain free. Facebook will remain part of MCP and OCP’s news distribution. But the Daily Briefing provides something Facebook cannot guarantee: a direct connection between MCP and OCP and their readers.
To Subscribe:
Monthly subscriptions are available for $12 per month.
Click here to subscribe monthly.
Annual subscriptions are available for $120 per year.
Click here to subscribe annually.
If you prefer to pay by check, mail your $120 annual payment to:
Media Group 31, LLC
P.O. Box 21
Scottville, MI 49454
Please include your name, mailing address, email address and telephone number so we can activate your subscription.
Subscription payments must be received before service is activated.
Whether you choose to subscribe or continue enjoying our free content, thank you for reading Mason County Press and Oceana County Press. Your readership—and your support—helps ensure that independent local journalism remains available to everyone in our communities.
