Snapchat has long been known for its "limited time" content that users can share and view for only a matter of seconds. Its Stories function extended that deadline to 24 hours, but even the base format of sharing images and videos is not always what news media looks for when trying to market its content. The new Discovery function, released only this past week, attempts to bring businesses into the fold by giving a select few their own space within the popular content sharing app.
Discovery is the result of Snapchat's partnership with CNN, The Food Network, ESPN, Comedy Central, and a number of other news sources. It's a page within the app -- users, just swipe once to the left from the home page -- that contains a handful of bubbles which link viewers to content that updates itself every 24 hours. The Snapchat blog says Stories are familiar because they give users a beginning, middle, and end to their news and that each edition of Discover is refreshed every day "because what's news today is history tomorrow."
This is a definite look at news as not exactly a passing fancy but more of a present-focused ideal. Snapchat appears to want things fresh. Quick. New. Always changing.
Discover will give them, their users, and their news partners exactly that. Even advertisers are keen on the platform because, as Digiday notes, they can get ads for cheaper through those news partners than Snapchat itself since Snapchat reportedly lets news publishers sell their own ads to brands.
VideoInk says more partners are joining the team, so one could argue that the platform is appealing to a wide range of publishers. Yet, Digiday also notes the marked absence of BuzzFeed and the New York Times. Speculation regarding their absence leads more to Snapchat's inability to make a deal rather than the desirability of Discover. Still, Snapchat is said to be pushing for more music with Warner Music Group -- though Discover was unable to land Spotify or Vevo.
This aggregation of news appears useful for the Spotify dedicated. Similarly, businesses wishing to bring together their own content can look to Zype to get all their own media under a single roof. Whether it's in a Vessel, webpage, or an app, this trend of content conglomeration is present and unflinching.
