Tuesday 27th July: The enduring appeal of slow journalism

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Kick off your shoes, lean back into your sofa or bubble bath, and take a looong slooow moment to read this. We've been big advocates of slow journalism on Media Voices for a long time, having featured Delayed Gratification and Tortoise as guests and in the news roundup. It's such a clever way of carving out a niche and a mission - getting off the hamster wheel of non-stop news has turned out to be a point of differentiation in itself.

So it's gratifying(!) to know that Tortoise has thrived over the course of the pandemic. Writing for journalism.co.uk Milly Martin explains that while there were concerns about the disruption of its signature Think-In events, bringing the audience and journalists together has worked just as well remotely.

'Last year, over 120,000 people attended digital Think Ins, attesting to the value that readers place on being able to contribute their view to the news agenda. But Murray said that these discussions were mutually beneficial. "It’s a really iterative process," she says. "The Think Ins are how we gather crucial information that shapes what we do."'

Here's an interesting one. Former editor-in-chief of the Guardian and current member of Facebook's somewhat impotent Oversight Board Alan Rusbridger is joining Prospect. It comes at the expense of a younger candidate - but when Rusbridger offers to join your magazine it's understandable why you'd pick him.

You might remember the name Recurrent Ventures from a few weeks ago when it was announced it had bought MEL Magazine. Now, as this article points out, the VC firm is striding down the path to media godfather with yet another major acquisition.

Really happy to see another climate reporter scheme launched - and this time at the BBC. While I agree with Wolfgang Blau that climate change reporting needs to be part of every beat, you have to start somewhere. And at least the BBC isn't touting the "benefits" of climate change now...

This week's episode:

In this week’s episode we hear from Sophie Cross, the founder and editor of Freelancer magazine. She tells Peter about her penchant for writing business plans, the freelance community that inspired the Freelancer magazine launch, and how she kept the spark going after the initial rush of the first issue.

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