Peter Hamby, one of CNN's best political reporters, has joined Snapchat's news division.
According to the Verge, Hamby is leaving the CNN network to join Snapchat as Head of News.
Though Hamby will stay on as a CNN contributor through 2016, his new focus will be to lend his considerable political and digital acumen to the social media network as it continues to grow its news product.
Hamby has served as national political reporter at CNN for eight years, rising to fame after embedding with presidential candidates during the 2008 and 2012 elections. This experience led to him publish "Did Twitter Kill the Boys on the Bus?" a paper that examined how social media changed political figures' relationships with reporters.
Hamby was quoted as saying in an interview that Snapchat is one of the most exciting young companies in the world. He was also quoted as saying, "Snapchat has a big and growing audience and we have seen Discover is a huge success. Their live stories around big events, around places both here and abroad, the potential to take users to new places, we can see some application of that with news."
Snapchat has been moving toward news with features like Snapchat Stories, which allows users to create stories through video clips and Snapchat Discover, a similar feature for news and entertainment that allows organizations like CNN, Vice and National Geographic to share stories.