Dive Brief:
- Snapchat is about to make more changes to its Discover publisher portal, adding Mashable and Vox.com, though it's unknown when the two will join, or which existing publishers they will replace.
- Ad Age reported that Mashable is already speaking with media buyers to secure advertisers ahead of its Discover debut.
- So far existing publishers on Discover are using the portal to publish content at a much higher ratio than for advertising.
Dive Insight:
Since its launch in January, Snapchat has shaken up its lineup of publishers on the Discover portal, particularly making the mix more youth-friendly to its millennial-heavy user base. In July, the ephemeral messaging app BuzzFeed and iHeartRadio and the latest move will be adding Mashable and Vox.com to Discover. Snapchat hasn’t announced when the two will join the portal or which of the current lineup will be replaced.
According to industry insiders Snapchat is also changing how publishers sell ads in their Discover channels, only allowing for five sponsored takeovers of their channels per month. Advertising on the Discover channels has been something of an issue with publishers using the channels for content more than advertising, averaging 110 daily stories published to the portal compared to 2.5 ads served per day. An earlier move made the discover portal more visible by placing it on the “stories” tab within the app.
