Mediatwits 147: Snapchat Discover: A New Mobile Portal For News?

Published: Feb. 13, 2015, 1:49 a.m.

Look out Facebook, Snapchat might be the new belle at the social media ball and media companies are taking notice. You can now find media outlets like CNN, ESPN and Vice on the app's new Discover section, which acts more like a curated portal than random news items in your feed. Each brand's channel or edition - as Snapchat calls it - contain about five to ten stories that users can swipe through. Stories on Discover disappear after 24 hours. When the company announced the feature late last month it took a jab at Facebook in a blog post: “We count on editors and artists, not clicks and shares, to determine what's important.” Media organizations are hoping the new feature will help them capture a share of the possibly 200 million users who log onto Snapchat each month. They’re hoping to connect with a key demographic that composes a majority of the app’s users: 13- to 25-year-old females. To take advantage of this, companies are able to sell ad space on their channels. Of course, Snapchat will be taking a cut of that revenue. Will Snapchat Discover lead to more revenues for publishers or will the platform suck those up the majority in the end? We’ll ask special guests Bridget Carey, senior editor of video at CNET; and Natalie Jarvey, the Hollywood Reporter’s digital media reporter. We’ll also be joined by regulars Andrew Lih of American University and Alex Leo, head of audience development at Yahoo. PBS MediaShift’s Mark Glaser will host and Jefferson Yen will be producing.