Snapchat Gets Into the News Business With the Launch of ‘Discover’

Snapchat’s long-awaited news tool, Discover, is finally here, letting media outlets post bite-sized content on the popular messaging app. The company announced the news on Tuesday with a blog post, though rumors of a Snapchat news tool began circulating last year. Through Discover, users tap to open a new edition, swipe left to browse through different stories, or swipe up to see more from a story.
At launch, Snapchat is working with ten media partners, including CNN, ESPN, and National Geographic. These companies will release a new edition of Discover content every 24 hours, featuring both videos and articles hand picked by their staffers. The goal for these media companies, of course, is to hook a new, younger audience that doesn’t often connect with traditional media.
And for Snapchat, Discover presents a chance to justify that $10 billion valuation, as the ephemeral messaging app begins integrating ads into the editorial content. Snapchat will also begin producing articles and videos of its own, according to a recent report by Digiday. Both changes position Snapchat firmly in the realm of new media companies, which as a recent WIRED cover story explored, are quickly inventing new ways to not only deliver news to readers but also to make money from it.
But while many of these companies, like Buzzfeed and Medium, have forged their own paths to success, without relying on traditional companies to prop them up, Snapchat has been working side by side with these companies to develop a tool can can bridge the gap between old school journalism and a young, tech savvy audience.
“Social media companies tell us what to read based on what’s most recent or most popular. We see it differently. We count on editors and artists, not clicks and shares, to determine what’s important,” Snapchat’s blog post reads. “All too often, artists are forced to accommodate new technologies in order to distribute their work. This time we built the technology to serve the art: each edition includes full screen photos and videos, awesome long form layouts, and gorgeous advertising.”
So far, Snapchat’s media partners, who will share ad revenue with the company, have expressed the typical excitement about the app. “We’re always seeking out new audiences and advertisers, and it’s more important than ever to tailor content to suit the platform,” Andrew Morse, senior vice president and general manager of CNN Digital, said in a statement. “Snapchat is one of the most engaging platforms out there, and we’re excited to be able to program content specifically for that audience.”
And yet, working with Snapchat is still a risk for media companies, because, ultimately, their goals are at odds. Media companies don’t need Snapchat users to become even more devout Snapchat users. Media companies need to hook young readers while they’re on Snapchat, so that they’ll eventually seek out more stories from those media companies off of Snapchat.
Snapchat, by contrast, wants to own as big a share of the user engagement pie as it can. That’s why it’s going to develop original stories and videos that no other outlets have, but that are pitch perfect for its audience. If Snapchat can give its users an endless supply of stories from its own team, plus the best of what everyone else has to offer, plus access to all the silly selfies and self-destructing videos that made it what it is today, why would users go anywhere else?