Facebook is thinking, apparently, about moving Page feeds out of the newsfeed everybody sees and moving them to a new Explore Feed that’s buried under the More menu on the mobile site.  That means publishers and media companies that have spent years building an audience and gotten hooked on using Facebook for promotion, branding, and driving traffic, may be totally out of luck.

Journalist Filip Stuharik notes that it’s already happened in some countries, including Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Cambodia.  The result?  Facebook reach for media companies dropped by two-thirds overnight.  The 60 biggest pages saw engagement rates drop four-fold.  Facebook told Stuharik it’s a regional test

Facebook has responded and said it’s only a test.  “We currently have no plans to roll this test out further,” said Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s Head of News Feed in a post.

“We are testing having one dedicated space for people to keep up with their friends and family, and another separate space, called Explore, with posts from pages.” –  – Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s Head of News Feed in a post

Combine that with the word that FB is considering charging publishers for ANY placement in the newsfeed and we could be heading towards yet another brave new world.  Facebook denies that’s the case.

“There is no current plan to roll this out beyond these test countries or to charge pages on Facebook to pay for all their distribution in News Feed or Explore.” – Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s Head of News Feed in a post