Stay Tuned airs or rather posts twice a day on Snapchat and it is the first news show on the platform. For weekdays the 30 person team that produces the show will offer a morning and evening edition, while weekends will get one show a day. The idea of a major network devoting this large of a staff to a Snapchat show is a new one, and it is an experiment.
But just after the first day, a few pros come to mind, and that is the ability to reach an audience that might be considered untapped. Stay Tuned covers national and international news, along with culture stories. The fast paced setup makes it easy to digest the content. Not to mention that the writing and stories being picked fit in with the structure and design of the show.
Hosting and anchoring Stay Tuned is Gadi Schwartz of NBC News and Savannah Sellers of MSNBC. In the first day, as expected, health care took up a significant portion of the show, along with voter fraud and wildfires in California. The show itself lasts between two or three minutes and is packed with news. But if breaking news occurs, they can produce shorter segments on the fly, thanks to a 30 person production team.
While you might think that Facebook and Twitter are away good way for these media companies to reach customers, it appears that Stay Tuned is targeting cord cutters and cord-neverers. It could be the college student on the go in between classes, the intern on her or his way to work, or someone who enjoys the Snapchat platform. But the team behind Stay Tuned is NBC which is a traditional media company, so while Snapchat is an experiment, it might end up leading the industry.
