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Facebook drives 25 per cent of all social referrals online, and its algorithm changes can boost or blast a publishers' figures almost overnight.
The social network is also reportedly in talks with news outlets inluding the New York Times and Buzzfeed to host their content on a revenue-share basis.
So what do media outlets make of Facebook's relationship with the industry? Vox Media president Marty Moe shared his take at today's FT Digital Media conference in London.
"Facebook is tricky because it's become such an important source of traffic for people," he said.
So the notion of publishing stories directly on the social network needs to be considered alongside a possible loss in audience numbers.
He explained he doesn't see "an apocalyptic scenario" dawning where all content will live on a single platform without any benefits for publishers.
And as more social media users read stories and watch videos on a variety of platforms including Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube, a multiplatform outlook is an opportunity for media outlets to figure out not just how to tell engaging stories on new apps, but also how to monetise their presence there.
"It will teach us not to rely on one platform, which has become an issue at various times... Whether that's Google or whether that's Facebook.
"We have to be good at all of them," he told delegates.
He added that Facebook will not aim to partner up with outlets who are actively chasing Facebook traffic, but with those media organisations with "storytelling at the heart".
"I think one of the reasons that Facebook is pulling back is that they've seen there are too many content companies that are focused mostly on 'what it's gonna take to get Facebook traffic'."
At Forbes, Charles Yardley, managing director of international, said "social is important but it's not a core driver of traffic to Forbes in any shape or form".
Instead, social media is a valuable tool to Forbes' team of contributors, who can build an audience for their stories trough social sharing, he explained.
Forbes Media recently bought social photo sharing app Camerama to use its underlying technology for a Forbes network of apps.
Chief product officer Lewis D'Vorkin told Journalism.co.uk earlier this month that the aim of this move is to build a "velvet-roped" community.
"In many ways we kind of compete with LinkedIn and Facebook," Yardley explained today.
"But I think the difference is Forbes puts authoritative journalism at the centre of a social media experience."
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