“The World” on Snapchat is changing its face but retains its fundamentals

Adapt. This has always been discussed. When The world launched in 2016, in this unknown territory that was Snapchat, we started from this observation: to interest young audiences in information, it was up to us to go part of the way, and without waiting. Do young people not read printed newspapers, little websites and apps? OK. But what are they reading, then? To what do they agree to entrust part of their time? We know that a large part of young people are passionate about certain current affairs topics, and, more broadly, about the future of their society. As long as you make the effort to contact them.

The third mutation

Therefore, our credo has been to make the most rigorous information accessible to everyone, regardless of age. To carry it where these readers are. And what better way to popularize it than an extremely visual universe, based not only on text, but also on video, photography and motion design (graphic animation)? A blank page, completely empty of formats imposed by tradition. A field of experimentation on which we have constantly evolved, tried a lot of things, carried out several redesigns, organized as many audience surveys … to adapt to the fairest, to improve ourselves.

Monday September 13, The world, on Snapchat, changes its face again. Almost five years to the day after the start of this adventure, the daily edition aimed at young audiences is making its third change, the deepest, and undoubtedly the most ambitious. Abandoned a fortnight earlier, the “story” format – a succession of ten-second snaps – gives way to a four-minute video format, the “Snapshow”.

Continuity in change

What we keep is first of all the editorial line. The editions of World on Snapchat retain the ambition to reach out to everyone, including (and especially) the youngest. They will always find there a summary of the important information of the day, and all the keys to form an opinion. Our ambition to take on complex and arid subjects to make them both clear and captivating remains unchanged.

Our information will also always be highlighted by our animations in motion design, our illustrations, our data visualizations and our articles… Our whole way of doing things, our whole identity on this platform, has been preserved. The structure of our editions, finally, remains the same:

  • a main subject will open each issue;
  • a second subject, shorter, but responding to a precise format;
  • a series of briefs.

We will address the reader in our work environment, the editorial staff, in order to show our practices, to expose the backstage

What changes: with the embodied video, it is a journalist who will tell the facts in person. This spoken format will allow us to say more, to explain differently, more effectively. In addition, our presence on Snapchat is based on our desire to get closer to our readers. Appearing in person on a regular basis will allow us to take this one step further. We will address the reader in our work environment, the editorial staff, in order to show our practices, to expose behind the scenes at the same time as we report the information. To demystify, by increasing proximity, this often so little known and poorly understood craft that is journalism.

This new formula is a concentrate of everything we have learned during these five years, on Snapchat, but also on TikTok, where we have been publishing for over a year. All of the choices that guided this update are inherited from our failures and successes.

A loyal and demanding community

The world on Snapchat is a success that has exceeded our expectations. Over the 1,600 editions that we have published, which represents more than 20,000 snaps and a thousand hundred articles, we have found a place, a tone, and, above all, an audience. A loyal and demanding community of 1.4 million subscribers and three hundred thousand readers every day.

We have forged a special bond with them, in particular through our exchanges by messages, without artifice. We have been nourished by their critical feedback, since 2016 as, specifically, for this redesign. They helped us understand their world, allowing us, thanks to their testimonies, to tell about the street harassment suffered by young adolescent girls, the condition of students in the midst of a pandemic or even the reasons for massive electoral abstention and very often very political …

It is on this success that we are capitalizing today, in order to pursue the experience one step further. And by adapting, once again.

Read also Why has Snapchat become so important? 5-point answer

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