I have a sudden urge to experiment with replacing all the news sources and journals that I regularly browse online with a single, finite, regular, curated issue.
I imagine this would prevent me from going down pointless rabbit holes, would free my mind from the shackles of checking news at every break in whatever I'm doing, and make it easier to resist the hell of refreshing.
I miss paper magazines. Turns out, they still sell them! I usually only encounter them while waiting around at airports, to have something to read while I'm offline during the flight. Maybe I should get a subscription or two...
I realized some time ago that weekly, biweekly, or semiweekly publications were likely the best way to consume the news, in order to dissociate the signal from the noise. Unfortunately, there seems to be a dearth of publications that provide this.
Even reading the weekend editions of various papers, there's a focus on providing the latest information over contextualizing current events within a broader timeslice than a few days at a time.
I get the weekly print version of the economist, although it’s only slightly delayed gratification. Covers all the stories of the week fairly thoroughly imo
It boggles my mind a little bit to realize that there was a period in my life when, barring really earth shattering news, I basically learned what noteworthy had happened the previous week when I got my issue of Time Magazine—possibly augmented by the network evening news if I got home in time and wasn’t traveling.
I really liked subscribing to the Economist. These days I unfortunately cannot in good conscience take the time to read through it every week. This is where I hope Delayed Gratification can be a substitute.
You phrased it like you're clarifying something, but parent is saying the opposite of what you are: if a news article will stay interesting, it's history, even if it's been published today.
I only realized in the past year or so that much news isn’t that helpful to consume. And this from somebody who gets most news from a print Economist weekly. On reflection, many stories go like “here are some things that happened, it’s about the same thing that’s been happening in this story for five months, it’s not yet clear how important recent developments are”.
Unfortunately, many conflicts fall under this umbrella.
Maybe there is some value to repeatedly pushing these things to the front of my consciousness —- rather than, say, checking in every few months —- but I can’t see what it is.
That sounds very similar to Ezra Pound's "Literature is news that stays news."
I prefer Phil Graham's "News is the first draft of History":
> So let us today drudge on about our inescapably impossible task of providing every week a first rough draft of history that will never really be completed about a world we can never really understand
There's something to be said for getting news from a source that isn't just trying to maximize eyeballs by optimizing/tweaking headlines and clicks (click optimization), but I'm not sure you're going to get anything much less biased.
Is there an offline version?
I have a sudden urge to experiment with replacing all the news sources and journals that I regularly browse online with a single, finite, regular, curated issue.
I imagine this would prevent me from going down pointless rabbit holes, would free my mind from the shackles of checking news at every break in whatever I'm doing, and make it easier to resist the hell of refreshing.
They publish quarterly print editions: https://www.slow-journalism.com/DG/shop
I miss paper magazines. Turns out, they still sell them! I usually only encounter them while waiting around at airports, to have something to read while I'm offline during the flight. Maybe I should get a subscription or two...
They happen to be substantially cheaper than most web and streaming services!
I'm a subscriber and it's quite underwhelming unfortunately. I will cancel it. There are some nice articles in it, but most of it is very "basic".
Are you evaluating any alternatives?
I read a magazine on a plane recently and with every article I was struck by the impulse to "read the comments" when I was through.
Guardian Weekly or The Week are good periodicals
I realized some time ago that weekly, biweekly, or semiweekly publications were likely the best way to consume the news, in order to dissociate the signal from the noise. Unfortunately, there seems to be a dearth of publications that provide this.
Even reading the weekend editions of various papers, there's a focus on providing the latest information over contextualizing current events within a broader timeslice than a few days at a time.
Just use the pdf versions of the newspapers/magazines of your choice.
I get the weekly print version of the economist, although it’s only slightly delayed gratification. Covers all the stories of the week fairly thoroughly imo
It boggles my mind a little bit to realize that there was a period in my life when, barring really earth shattering news, I basically learned what noteworthy had happened the previous week when I got my issue of Time Magazine—possibly augmented by the network evening news if I got home in time and wasn’t traveling.
I really liked subscribing to the Economist. These days I unfortunately cannot in good conscience take the time to read through it every week. This is where I hope Delayed Gratification can be a substitute.
"History is news that stays news."—Stewart Brand
History is news with a lag of ~20-30 years. So not that useful to learn about current events.
You phrased it like you're clarifying something, but parent is saying the opposite of what you are: if a news article will stay interesting, it's history, even if it's been published today.
I only realized in the past year or so that much news isn’t that helpful to consume. And this from somebody who gets most news from a print Economist weekly. On reflection, many stories go like “here are some things that happened, it’s about the same thing that’s been happening in this story for five months, it’s not yet clear how important recent developments are”.
Unfortunately, many conflicts fall under this umbrella.
Maybe there is some value to repeatedly pushing these things to the front of my consciousness —- rather than, say, checking in every few months —- but I can’t see what it is.
That sounds very similar to Ezra Pound's "Literature is news that stays news."
I prefer Phil Graham's "News is the first draft of History":
> So let us today drudge on about our inescapably impossible task of providing every week a first rough draft of history that will never really be completed about a world we can never really understand
Also in the "slow news" movement is https://www.tortoisemedia.com/ They were the largest journalism project ever run on kickstarter.
There's something to be said for getting news from a source that isn't just trying to maximize eyeballs by optimizing/tweaking headlines and clicks (click optimization), but I'm not sure you're going to get anything much less biased.
I was put off by the woman in the "This is Tortoise" video telling us the magazine is "Literally a breath of fresh air."
No sample?
Their blog has sample articles from previous issues.