CNN Targets Young Audience With News Show on Snapchat

In an effort to attract younger viewers, CNN has unveiled “The Update,” a daily three-to-five-minute news show exclusively for Snapchat. The show will run at 6:00 pm ET every day, with breaking news updates throughout the early morning and evening. “The Update” will replace CNN’s existing magazine-like “edition” produced daily for Snapchat’s Discover section. NBC also debuted a twice-daily news show in July this year. As one of Snapchat’s first publishing partners, CNN began created editions for the platform in early 2015.

“We are a more video-centric news organization,” said Samantha Barry, head of social and emerging video at CNN. “It’s a huge opportunity for us to introduce our reporters and anchors and some of the best experts in the field to this whole new audience.”

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To produce its Snapchat news shows, NBC has brought on a 30-person staff. It’s been a success: NBC reports the show got 29 million unique viewers in its first month. Time Warner, parent company of CNN, “committed $100 million to creating shows and buying ads on Snapchat earlier this summer,” reports Recode, and NBCUniversal “invested $500 million in Snapchat when the company went public back in March.”

Engadget reports that each episode of CNN’s “The Update” will “cover five or more stories in a quick, just-the-facts format.” Up until now, it adds, “CNN’s Snapchat news output has so far been limited to infographics and story links, so this is a much more concerted effort to court the mobile crowd.”

“The Update” is not expected to “become a primary source of news, but it may keep CNN in people’s minds at a time when viewing habits are changing rapidly.” Snapchat could also benefit as it seeks more users in the wake of Facebook imitating its features.

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