Publishers Embrace Snap’s Dynamic Stories for Gen-Z Exposure and a Welcome Revenue Share

A new partnership with Snap has given more than 40 news publishers a rare opportunity to ask its coveted Gen-Z audience, “How do you do, fellow kids?” When it launches officially Tuesday, the program, called Dynamic Stories, will give news media companies access to the Discover feature of Snap, providing the publishers entrée to a platform that, unlike other social media, restricts access to invited partners. Among U.S. publishers, Axios, CNN and Tom’s Guide will be new to the app, according to a Snap spokesperson. Publishers connect to Dynamic Stories by linking select RSS feeds, which will populate content on the app as soon as it publishes on their websites. By automating the process, Snap reduces the involvement required from publishers, making it a low-lift experiment, said Neal Rothschild, director, audience and growth at Axios. Snap will also split the generated advertising revenue 50-50 with publishers, the same rate as previous partnerships, according to a source familiar with the matter. This Report Shows Why Gen Z Sees Straight Through Your Marketing Efforts Participating publishers, who have been involved in a beta test of the program for several months, tell Adweek that so far the results have generated an unremarkable amount of revenue and traffic. But the decision from Snap to volunteer a revenue split marks a departure from the historically-frigid relationship between publishers and platforms. The olive branch differentiates the social media service from its competitors, even if the dollar figures are underwhelming, said Jason Kint, CEO of publisher trade body Digital Content Next. “They’ve done a good job of preserving the premium nature,” of publishers, Kint said. “We like the way they present publishers and curate and protect the environment, but sure wish there was more return on the investment.” What publishers bring to Snap During the trial period, publishers have experimented with content types to find what resonates with the Snap audience. For U.K. tabloid The Mirror, politics is performing well, said Ben Rankin, nationals audience director at parent company Reach. The title’s politics edition now has 26,000 subscribers, while the showbiz edition has 11,000. At Bloomberg Media, the publisher has found success with reporting that has a short introduction and a youthful appeal, such as its story on urban cowboys, according to Meg Ely, its managing editor, social and audience development. Axios has taken pains to avoid highlighting any content that is too niche or business-oriented, Rothschild told Adweek. In addition to connecting the RSS feed of its home page, the publisher has also linked directly to coverage from specific reporters, including its overnight editor Rebecca Falconer, who covers trending news. The Washington Post has been on Snap for years, but during the first week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Post reached more than 1.1 million Snapchatters with its coverage, according to Snap, demonstrating an appetite for news on the platform. In adopting Dynamic Stories, The Post hopes to unlock other, new opportunities for reaching these young audiences, said head of curation and platforms Colleen O’Lear. “Snapchat Dynamic Stories allows us to render articles the same way they appear on our website without reformatting or truncation,” O’Lear said. “We were also able to increase the number of stories available to Snapchat users.” She noted that there is strong overlap between what is popular on the Post’s apps and sites and what does well on Dynamic Stories. A fraught relationship between publishers and platforms Technology platforms have come under criticism in recent years for profiting off of content made by newsrooms without shouldering any of the costs of its production. These tensions have led to legislation in countries like Australia and France that forces platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate a revenue share with major news publishers. U.S. publishers do make money from Facebook and Google through ad-revenue sharing on Facebook Watch and YouTube, among other programs, but only because those platforms pay all creators on their platforms, publishers included. With Dynamic Stories, Snap is taking a more publisher-centric approach by inviting them onto their platform with the intent of paying them, instead of profiting off of all publishers and just paying the ones who use the right formats. Still, platforms like Facebook and Google drive bigger revenue than what publishers have historically made from Snap, Kint said. “The revenue sharing terms [are positive] but the actual money that flows through hasn’t been overwhelming,'' Kint said. “It’s a brand and marketing channel more so than an actual line of business.” For Snap, allowing more formats for news serves the ultimate purpose of making the platform stickier for users, a spokesperson told Adweek. “We want Discover to be the fastest place to be informed and entertained,” they said.