Snapchat Hires a CNN Reporter to Lead News Team

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Further expanding its editorial team, Snapchat has hired a prominent CNN political reporter.

Peter Hamby, a national political reporter for CNN, will start in a few weeks as Snapchat’s head of news and “will be focused internally,” a spokeswoman said via an email.

While working for Snapchat Hamby will continue contributing reporting to CNN on a contract basis through the 2016 presidential election cycle.

In addition to disappearing pictures, videos and messages, Snapchat launched an in-app content broadcasting feature called Discover in January. The feature hosts news and content from media companies like CNN, National Geographic and Vice. The content disappears at the end of each day.

Snapchat also has its own channel within the Discover feature, which it has used to push out internally developed content, including a scripted drama called “Literally Can’t Even.”

Advertisements on the Discover feature are reported to go for about $100,000 a day.

With an expanded reporting team, Snapchat appears to be looking to be developing its own news content. In addition to Hamby, it has recently hired online journalists with experience at Fuse and The Verge.

Snapchat has some experience organizing news content with its Our Story feature, a curated stream of photos and videos from events such as the World Cup. That service could provide its growing news team with original footage to supplement its reporting.

Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.

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