This story first appeared on RJI’s Futures Lab. Reporting by Mitchel Summers, Jon Doty and Sarah Sabatke
Most news organizations have limited functionality within Snapchat. But as a Snapchat Discover partner, CNN can offer multi-part news updates that are available to all Snapchat users. We talked with Ashley Codianni, director of social publishing, about how CNN hopes its efforts on the platform will create news habits among young people who don’t follow traditional channels.
For more information:
- CNN published an interactive called Year in Snaps, which showcases the variety of content the organization posted on Snapchat throughout 2015.
- During this year’s primary season, CNN interviewed Democratic and Republican presidential contenders specifically for Snapchat.
- According to CNN head of social media Samantha Barry, themed editions do particularly well for their audience, specifically a marijuana edition on April 20, 2015, and political content. “There’s a lot of experimenting,” Barry told the International Business Times. “The first time we put a 15-minute video on Snapchat we weren’t sure if people would watch the whole thing.” But, she said, they did.
- CNN delivers most of its Snapchat content through its Discover channel.
Rachel Wise is an editor at the Futures Lab at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and co-producer of the weekly Futures Lab video update.
The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Futures Lab video update features a roundup of fresh ideas, techniques and developments to help spark innovation and change in newsrooms across all media platforms. Visit the RJI website for the full archive of Futures Lab videos, or download the receive email notification of each new episode.
