Snapchat redesigned its publisher section and now lets you subscribe to your favorite channels

Snapchat's publishing partners have long wanted a way to stand out inside the app. Now Snapchat is giving them their chance.

On Tuesday, Snapchat announced that users can subscribe to their favorite publishers from the Discover section, the area inside the app where Snapchat partners like ESPN, BuzzFeed and Cosmopolitan post content on a daily basis.*

Subscribing to a publisher guarantees its content will appear on Snapchat's Stories page, a section of the app closer to the launch screen that drives more traffic than the actual Discover section, according to sources.

As part of the update, Snapchat is also redesigning the Discover section so publishers can tease out each day's content with a magazine-style image and headline. The idea is to lure in readers who might not open a Discover channel without any idea what they're going to find inside.

Recode first reported on both of these updates back in February.

Snapchat

The key here is that Snapchat is giving publishers a way to stand out from the crowd. The Discover section has nearly doubled in size since Snapchat first launched it 18 months ago, and without any way to accumulate a following or add attention-grabbing headlines, it was tough for any one channel to distinguish itself (besides creating great stuff, of course).

Now that they can, expect publishers to fight hard for subscribers. Just like followers on Facebook or Twitter, adding subscribers inside Snapchat will mean publishers get better placement within the app and a quantifiable audience to help with pitches to potential advertisers.

One publishing partner told us back in December that competition inside Discover felt like "The Hunger Games." Now that subscribers and story headlines are part of the mix, expect things to get even feistier.

The new design and subscriber feature will roll out as part of an app update on Tuesday.

* Vox Media, which owns this site, launched a Discover channel for its Vox.com site in 2015.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via