Snapchat, the smartphone app which is used to send pictures and videos that disappear within 10 seconds, is now being used by media outlets like ESPN and CNN to connect with younger users through a new service that will provide short stories accompanied by multimedia elements.
"It's an incredible opportunity. It's not about getting everyone to come to you. It's about getting young audiences where they already are," Meredith Artley, editor in chief of CNN Digital,
tells The Washington Post.
The app, which is known as Discover, was launched in January and promoted by media figures like Yahoo! News' Katie Couric as a way to get "the news you need to know to be in the know."
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The new feature will give users access to content from ESPN, CNN and nine other media partners, including Cosmopolitan, Comedy Central, National Geographic, as well as from Snapchat's in-house editorial team,
reports Investor's Business Daily.
Seeking to differentiate itself from Facebook, the company will impose tighter publishing restrictions to ensure that the content provided is "optimized" for the platform, according to IBD.
Snapchat's venture into the news business is not surprising considering that the number of Americans getting their news via social media is increasing.
In 2013, the
Pew Research Center reported that half of all Facebook users get their news from there.
Reddit is the news destination for 62 percent of its users, but with just 3 percent of the population using it, fewer Americans are actually reached.
Snapchat's effort is intended to capitalize on the growing number of teens and younger adults who are leaving Facebook behind.
In 2014, a study conducted by
iStrategylabs found that the percentage of Facebook users between the ages of 13 and 17 declined 25.3 percent over a three-year period, while the number of users older than 55 years of age increased by an astonishing 80 percent.
"Different devices will have different types of journalism and different formatted content — long form journalism is not necessarily suited for small mobile devices. News definitely needs to be designed differently for these platforms because it is not comfortable to read a gigantic magazine story on your iPhone," Marcus Messner, an associate professor of journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University, told Lauren Blum, a
collegiate correspondent for USA Today.
It is not only media outlets who are seizing on the new Discover feature to reach new audiences.
During February's New York Fashion Week, use of Snapchat increased among reporters and designers alike to provide a backstage glimpse into the events and to spread their brand name to a wider audience,
Bloomberg News reported.
"Now it's an opportunity for a brand to present their stuff in a controlled environment. It's all with the hope that well-heeled attendees will take a ton of pictures and spread it to a much broader audience," Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, told Bloomberg Television.
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