The WSJ, which first reported about the deal, said news publications Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, and Business Insider have also reached a similar deal with Facebook.

The news organizations will be paid a licensing fee to supply headlines, the WSJ reported.

Last year, News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch had called on Facebook to pay "trusted" news publishers a carriage fee, similar to the model used by cable companies.

Certain headlines appearing in Facebook's news section will be curated by a team of editors, while others will be selected by the company's algorithm, according to the WSJ report.

Following criticism that Facebook has a lax approach to fake news reports and state-backed disinformation campaigns, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has earlier said the social network would prioritize "trustworthy" news in its feed by identifying high-quality outlets.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)