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Snap lays off two dozen employees, including some from branded content teams

Snap lays off two dozen employees, including some from branded content teams

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The Discover section probably isn’t going anywhere, though

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Snap has laid off two dozen employees today, including some from the company’s content division, according to a report from Cheddar. That group focused on working with publishing partners like BuzzFeed to produce original content for the Discover section of the app.

The news comes after Snap’s redesign of Snapchat last fall, which was meant to separate out the brand-filled Discover section of the app, while also putting some of the spotlight back on communication with friends. (Facebook also recently expressed a similar point of view, announcing that it would prioritize more posts from friends on the News Feed to boost “meaningful interactions.”)

Despite the layoffs, Snap still seems focused on continuing to build out branded content — the Discover section lives in a new, separate area in the updated app, and there are already reports of an upcoming “Stories Everywhere” feature that would look to help build out Snapchat’s content both within the app and across the internet.

Snapchat’s redesign is still rolling out slowly across the world, with Snap not offering any estimates of when to expect it, but early reports indicate that the update isn’t being well received.

Correction: According to a source close to Snap, less than half of the layoffs come from content-related roles. This article originally stated that most of the laid off employees came from the content team.

Update January 18, 6:10pm: Added additional context around Snap’s “Stories Everywhere” program.