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In this week’s episode of Media Voices, Rob Orchard – the co-founder and editor of the original slow journalism magazine Delayed Gratification – takes us through the mission of the magazine, why giving newsroom to breathe is absolutely vital, and why more publishers are jumping on the bandwagon.
In the news roundup we celebrate some subscription milestones for the FT and the Guardian, investigate the timings of AppleNews+’s launch and Facebook’s mooted premium News tab, and ask if Stylist Group’s move into lifestyle and fitness products is a class issue.
The transcript for Rob Orchard is available here.
In our own words
Rob Orchard’s enthusiasm is infectious. We talked a lot about slow journalism in this week’s episode, its principles and its challenges. But what really came through in our chat is that Rob really loves his magazine, he loves the stories in his magazine, he loves the tiny details that make up the stories in his magazine.
When I asked him how come Delayed Gratification is still going strong after 33 issues when so many independent magazines fail after three he said:
“I think, a huge amount of the reason that we’re still going is because in the early years, when it was very bloody and very hand-to-mouth, we just kept going because we had a real bee in our bonnet.”
Rob still has a bee in his bonnet. He’s still passionate about making ‘a great magazine, beautiful, full of good stories’. And he’s still determined to prove that, in the age of stuff-for-free online, you can do something supported entirely by its subscribers and its readers, in print and without advertising.
“You pay for the copy and you get 120 pages of pure beautiful well-designed journalism,” he explained. Simples.
Delayed Gratification will soon face its first direct competition when slow journalism start-up Tortoise launches its quarterly print title.
Rather than dent Delayed Gratification’s sales, I hope the introduction of a second slow read will grow the market for high-quality, considered journalism. And if Tortoise wants to compete, they better be ready to get deeply, deeply passionate about the tiniest details.
Republished with kind permission of Media Voices, a weekly look at all the news and views from across the media world.
