Long-form journalism 2.0: A look at some tools
Mar 30, 2011 in Media
If you ask around the journalism industry, lovers of long-form journalism noticed something rather disturbing. There are simply fewer of the long-form profiles and features they love to read.
It’s not hard to see why. Forced by shrinking revenues, newspapers and magazines have had to cut page counts, slash expenses and staff and cut the rates and salaries for their writers.
But recently, a number of technological developments have given writers and readers of long-form journalism some hope. A look at some of them:
1. Instapaper and Read it Later
If you think about how you read online, it becomes very clear that most, if not all, of your online reading happens at your desktop or laptop computer. It’s only been in the last few years that smartphones and tablets have become mainstream devices and an important way for many people to read online content.
Enter Instapaper (and similar application Read It Later). These apps allow you to “timeshift your reading.” Articles that you find while browsing during the day (admit it, you’re checking other websites when you’re at work) can be saved on Instapaper and Read it Later to be read on your smartphone or tablet.
A service like Readability also raises interesting ways that publishers can make money from long-form content. (more…)








