Hi there, Lucinda Southern, Adweek media editor, hoping you can start to wind down the short week over the next day or two.
Before we do, on Monday Snapchat announced TikTok clone Spotlight, offering creators and users who post the best snaps an eye-popping $1 million each day until the end of the year. That not-insignificant-sum meant that the announcement generated a lot of news.
Snapchat is in the unusual position of ripping off another platform’s features.
Consolidation of existing players is going to be rife in the media industry, analysts are quick to tell me, and like everything, that’s accelerated by the pandemic. Social platforms’ features have merged into something homogeneous over the years.
Flashing a wad of cash is one way to encourage creators to make more content, Snapchat is cozying up to the creator community that was lured to TikTok.
I’m curious how creators view both platforms, what the pros and cons are, why pick one over the other (Snapchat's privacy-by-design and augmented reality seem the differetiators). This is an area we’re going to explore in the coming weeks as we look at what’s coming down the pike for next year.
Another piece I want to flag is this about the flow of talent from digital media companies to The New York Times, (among others). The Times is arguably the biggest news brand in the world, so perhaps there’s little surprise here about how attractive it is as a place to work. Attracting talent is always a top challenge, watch how creative companies, mass and niche, are in retaining it. And drop me a line with any thoughts, lucinda.southern@adweek.com.
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As ever, thanks for reading!
Lucinda
