Snapchat plans to add journalistic articles

Hester Gras

According to The New York Times, photo messaging start-up Snapchat has big plans for the future. Rumours are spreading that Snapchat is going to collaborate with a select group of media companies to offer a wide range of journalistic articles, videos and photos in the app. This would include content from companies such as CNN, ESPN, National Geographic, Vice and Yahoo.

The media content section will start as a seperate section inside Snapchat’s app and will be called ‘Discover’. The app’s users will be able to browse through the content that is produced specifically for the app. The app will mainly feature videos up to several minutes long, but text and images will also be included. In addition, Snapchat wants to include advertisements between the original content in this section. The ad revenue will be split between Snapchat and the media companies.

This is how Snapchat users use the app now. Soon, they might also read journalistic articles in the app. Source: Hollandse Hoogte.
Will people start using Snapchat differently when there are journalistic articles in the app? Source: Hollandse Hoogte.

A novel forms of media distribution 

The initiative represents a new direction for the start-up. It became very popular as a social network platform for users to send photos and text messages that disappear soon after they are sent.

With this new form of media distribution, however, Snapchat might become of great value for media companies too. KC Estenson, former head of digital at CNN explained to Digiday: “Snapchat is on to something that will be incredibly meaningful for its audience and super helpful for reaching people who aren’t consuming content on TV, newspapers and magazines.”

We look forward to hearing more about Snapchat’s initiative soon!
Will it be successful? What do you think?


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