Snapchat launches Discover for content delivery

Snapchat launched Discover Tuesday, a feature that lets users read, watch and, indeed, discover, content from major editorial publishers such as CNN, Comedy Central, ESPN and Vice.

The new feature marks a departure to content delivery that goes outside a person's friend network, and, importantly, opens up a new advertising revenue stream. Of the inaugural offerings on Discover, videos and articles from CNN, ESPN and the Daily Mail began with quick (and skip-able) "brought to you" messages highlighting their sponsors, BMW, the movie "Seventh Son" and T-Mobile, respectively.

Other features included an eyeliner tutorial from Cosmopolitan magazine, adorable footage of a baby sloth, courtesy of National Geographic, and a video feature called "Welcome to Japan's Naked Hermit Island. Population: One," from Vice Media.

Content will refresh every 24 hours because, as Snapchat said in a blog post Tuesday, "what's news today is history tomorrow."

The company also outlined its philosophy behind what content gets featured:

Snapchat Discover is a new way to explore Stories from different editorial teams. It's the result of collaboration with world-class leaders in media to build a storytelling format that puts the narrative first. This is not social media.

Social media companies tell us what to read based on what's most recent or most popular. We see it differently. We count on editors and artists, not clicks and shares, to determine what's important.

To get to Discover, users just swipe left twice from the main screen. From there, they go to a page of brand icons, where they can click on one, then swipe left, up and down to browse, read and watch the multimedia stories.

Here's a video that shows how it works: