Content chief Bell exits Snap

Nick Bell, VP of content at Snapchat’s parent company Snap, is leaving the company after five years.

Nick Bell

Bell made the announcement to colleagues in a memo on Monday, adding he would use his downtime to “recharge” and plan his next move.

Seen as a key ally of Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel, Bell was in charge of the company’s content strategy. This included launching Live Stories on the Snapchat app and building the Discover feature, which provides the platform for the company’s ad-friendly, shareable content such as original shows.

Bell was integral to the company’s foray into video content, which was spearheaded by a move into scripted via a digital studio joint venture with NBCUniversal announced last October.

Last month, Snap unveiled Snap Originals, 12 new exclusive scripted and unscripted shows created by leading storytellers.

These include eight-episode Co-Ed, a comedy from the Duplass Brothers; 12-part mystery thriller Class of Lies; 12-episode docuseries Endless Summer from Bunim/Murray Productions; and eight-part supernatural dark comedy The Dead Girls Detective Agency.

Bell said: “Thanks to the hard work of our amazing team, we have built Discover into a world-leading media platform. We have established vertical video as the industry standard, built hugely successful partnerships with some of the world’s best media companies and storytellers, produced incredible stories, launched a fantastic slate of original shows and built a robust advertising business.”

Bell joined the company from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in London, where he was senior VP of digital products. Prior to that he was director of digital products.

His departure comes during a tricky year for Snap which has seen it struggle to match the popularity of Facebook-owned photo and video-sharing platform Instagram. Instagram’s move into video with standalone vertical video app IGTV has impacted Snap’s reach.

Snap has also lost several senior staff including its chief strategy officer Imran Khan. Following Bell’s departure, its content team will be headed by Jared Grusd, who was brought in to replace Khan. Snapchat’s head of original content Sean Mill and David Brinker, director of business development for content, will continue in their positions.