Snapchat Eliminates Curators As ‘Live Stories’ Pivots Away From Cities To Major Events

Snapchat is reportedly pulling the plug on its Live Stories feature that provides viewers with glimpses at everyday goings-on in various cities across the globe. Instead, in what amounts to a slight pivot, Snapchat will focus Live Stories around specific major events, according to Bloomberg, such as Fourth of July parties and the Super Bowl.

As a result, roughly 15 curators who worked on the so-called Local Stories team have lost their jobs in order to accommodate this shift. “A small number of Local Story curator positions were eliminated in our Los Angeles and New York offices, as the result of changes to our Local Story coverage,” Snapchat told Bloomberg in a statement. “We’re thankful for the contributions from these team members.”

Bloomberg notes that Local Stories weren’t as popular as other features, and

that Snapchat is continuing to retool its product features ahead of an eventual IPO. Snapchat has also been focused on forging deals for premium video series to supplement its user-generated Snaps, Bloomberg reports. It’s worth noting that Instagram, too, recently updated its Explore tab to curate videos from different events happening around the world.

According to a report from eMarketer released yesterday, Snapchat’s ad revenues are slated to catapult from $366.69 million this year to $935.46 million in 2017. And ads allotted within user-generated Snaps are slated to account for a large share of this growth. Currently, Snapchat’s Discover section — featuring bold-faced publishers like BuzzFeed, Mashable, and CNN — accounts for most of its ad revenues, though user Stories are expected to take this title next year.