Slow journalism

Slow journalism comes to me so naturally that I’ve taken about five years to write about it.

On Wednesday morning, the Today programme (I cannot wake up without Radio 4′s good-natured, grumble-fest; that delicate blend of warm-crumpet humour and stern, stentorian urgency is the perfect mental espresso) was so interesting that I was moved to switch off the Babyliss. Following Al Jazeera English’s rolling coverage of the Egyptian protests, Marcus Webb, director of the Slow Journalism Company, and former director of BBC Global News Richard Sambrook, were discussing the missing ‘sense of perspective’ in our always-on reporting culture.

Webb was touting his new luxury print quarterly Delayed Gratification, which:

distils three months of the UK’s political, cultural, scientific and sporting life into a witty magazine of record. A combination of almanac, essays and reportage, Delayed Gratification operates on the principles of Slow Journalism, offers an antidote to throwaway media and makes a virtue of being the last to breaking news. Its publications are beautiful, collectible and designed to be treasured.

Gosh. I delayed my gratification for all of an hour, and subscribed as soon as I got to work.

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