Does Snapchat want to be a destination for news? With Snap's Lucy Luke

“Less social media. More Snapchat.” That is the tagline to Snap’s latest marketing campaign. The company, founded in 2011 as an image-sharing app that deletes the pictures after a short time frame, has evolved into a more comprehensive product and clearly wants to separate itself from the perhaps toxic connotations of the label “social media”.

One area where Snap looks increasingly distinct from its competitors like Facebook, which has wound down its support for news over the past year, is in its partnerships with news and lifestyle publishers that bring unique content to Snapchat users via the app’s Discovery page and Stories.

Lucy Luke, Snap's UK head of partnerships, sits down with reporter Jack Benjamin to talk about the company's strategy of working with publishers and, increasingly, creators.

The pair discuss Snap's level of commitment to supporting news on its platform, how publishers are having to adapt the way they present stories to appeal to younger audiences in short-form video formats and how Snap benefits from becoming a place for audiences to check in on news and lifestyle.

Highlights:

1:45: Why Snap's young audience appeals to publishers and vice versa

8:30: A place for hard news, soft news or both

12:39: Do journalists need to act more like creators to get news across on Snapchat?

17:52: The role of news in Snap's commercial strategy

20:30: A more hands-on approach to brand safety

24:41: The future of partnerships for Snap – Olympics, Paralympics, 2024 elections and the growth in creators

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This episode was edited by our production partner Trisonic.

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