Meet Snapchat Discover, the New Millennial Media Network

Snapchat is making it easier for millennials to find great stories with Snapchat Discover, one of the most unique media networks the digital age has seen.

Snapchat has teamed up with editorial outlets like CNN, ESPN, Yahoo News, Vice, and Comedy Central to “build a storytelling format that puts the narrative first,” as Team Snapchat announced on their blog. Discover will give brands an opportunity to reach Snapchat’s tens of millions of users where they’re already spending their time communicating with friends using quick, snappable content. Earlier today, Snapchat introduced Discover to their users with a snap of the video below:

The new feature offers up-to-date editions of content from publishing partners, including a multimedia smorgasbord of photos, videos, and longform text. According to The Verge, Comedy Central is already testing Discover with teasers from hit shows like Broad City, and the Food Network is offering quick recipes. Snapchat will also offer its own curated content on its “snapchannel,” which will be run by its impressive in-house editorial team of writers and videographers. As Re/code points out, Snapchat will sell ads against these multimedia offerings and share the revenue with the publishers.

“This is not social media,” the Snapchat blog reads. “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 already has experience curating stories with its Our Stories feature, which offers a feed of videos and images relating to big news events like the latest World Cup. Some big-name brands have also tried their hands at using Snapchat to reach millennials with their own accounts on the platform. And Snapchat got freaky last year when they experimented with sponsored content for the horror film Ouija in the app’s “Recent Updates” section.

Still, Discover proves that Snapchat is bringing real sophistication to their brand partner strategy, making moves to compete with Facebook in the “social-platform-turned-publisher” realm. The question is: Will millennials be down with snapping through their news instead of scrolling through it? Snapchat Discover’s partners are willing to bet on it.

Update: To give more practical context, here’s a video from Son of Socal about how publishers covered winter storm Juno on Snapchat: