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NY Times will now have a presence on Snapchat Discover

The New York Times is joining publications such as The Economist and The Wall Street Journal in dedicating a portion of its newsroom to Snapchat Discover, a move which comes as newspapers increasingly pivot towards millennials.

Similar to the publication's audio series The Daily (which premiered on Wednesday), the Discover channel will run on weekdays, and is meant to offer a bite-sized look into topics under the newspaper?s purview while acting as a supplement to the publication at large. The Discover presence is the latest chapter in a dedicated pivot to mobile for The Times, which is looking to grow its millennial readership through evolving their media strategy with the cohort. 

"We?re seeing enormous interest on the part of younger audiences for the sort of smart, visual digital journalism for which The Times has become known," said Kinsey Wilson, executive vice president, product and technology, The New York Times Company. "And Snapchat is an ideal place to reach that audience. 

"At the end of the day, our goal is to make sure our journalism reaches the widest possible audience and that we continue the rapid growth we?ve seen in our base of loyal subscribers -- growth that comes in large part from reaching new audiences on other platforms.?

Snapchat Discover
Snapchat touts over 150 million users every day, and Nielsen claims that on a given day, the app reaches 41 percent of the 18 to 34 year old demographic in the U.S. 

The content will act as a supplement to the Morning Briefing

The Discover channel will allow The Times to put together a team of top visual storytelling experts to produce a distinctive edition of the morning briefing for the Snapchat community. The Times?s team, as with all Discover publishers, will have editorial independence over the content it produces for Snapchat.

The Times?s Discover content will act in conjunction with The Daily as a modern iteration of its popular Morning Briefing, the popular Times newsletter that many use to keep up-to-date on current events. With newsletters and email being incredibly unpopular with millennials, The New York Times looks to meet the cohort ? who tend to have an appetite for more granular news via social media ? where they already are.

Both The Daily and The Times?s Snapchat Discover channel are nonintrusive media platforms, and both have low barriers for entry and exit, essential requirements for busy millennials who still want to stay informed. And the Snapchat presence especially will introduce newspaper?s brand identity to the masses, which will be crucial in its efforts to court millennial and Generation Z crowds that have had a significant portion of their feeds diluted with fake news and punditry. 

Media maneuvers
The Daily is hosted by established Times correspondent Michael Barbaro, a twelve-year veteran of the Times who has worked in many capacities for the newspaper of record; most recently, he was a national politics reporter covering the presidential campaign. He will look to work with The Times?s Snapchat Discover team to lend an aura of legitimacy to the nascent platforms (see story). 

This marks the Times?s third major newsroom development geared toward the mobile platform: in November, it announced a landmark partnership with Samsung to produce and release on 360-degree video a day (see story).

The Times is paying special attention to mobile

?The New York Times is one of the world?s leading sources for authoritative and credible information -- the very values that we built Discover on,? said Nick Bell, vice president of content for Snap Inc. ?We are thrilled that Snapchatters will soon have daily access to the brilliant journalism and strong editorial perspective that The Times brings to covering the most important issues we face.?