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Snap hired Apple News’s former media boss to work on its Discover section

Donna Ogier joined Snap in February.

Snapchat

Donna Ogier, who oversaw media partnerships for Apple News until early this year, has joined Snap to work on Snapchat’s Discover section.

Donna Ogier
Donna Ogier
LinkedIn

Ogier’s new title is “global publishing manager” and she started at Snap in February, according to her LinkedIn profile. A Snap spokesperson confirmed the hire and says Ogier will report to former New York Post President David Brinker, who joined Snap in October to run business development for Snap’s content efforts.

It’s not entirely clear what Ogier will do, but it sounds as though she’ll help Snap deal with its publishing partners, like she did at Apple.

Discover has been an evolving section inside Snapchat since it debuted in early 2015. Snapchat has been notoriously particular about which publishers it works with for Discover*, and isn’t afraid to cut ties with those that don’t perform well. Numerous publications have had trouble getting content onto the app in the past, though Snap’s list of publishing partners is expanding.

Despite these challenges, Discover has generated some revenue for its publishing partners. In 2016, Snap publishers made $58 million.

But now Snap is pushing these publishers to create “shows,” short TV-like episodes specifically for the app. In some cases, it’s looking to license this content so it doesn’t have to share revenue at all. Ogier’s relationships with publishers could help speed these deals along.

* Vox Media, which owns this site, has worked with Snapchat to produce Discover content in the past.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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