Observer » Longform

Steve Kandell Goes to BuzzFeed to Edit Longform

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:50:48 -0400

Steve Kandell is going to BuzzFeed to become the editor of the website's new foray into longform, narrative journalism. Mr. Kandell was the Editor-in-Chief at SPIN during the magazine’s redesign and has worked as a freelance editor at Details.

"Even though print itself is becoming less prevalent, the conversation-provoking longform journalism and profiles that have long been a staple of magazines are as vital as they’ve ever been, and I'm thrilled to help make this kind of writing a working part of the social web at BuzzFeed,” said Mr. Kandell.

This is the latest, most official move in BuzzFeed's push into longform. The website once known for animal pictures posted "an exclusive and wide-ranging interview" with Oliver Stone last night and BuzzFeed executive editor Doree Shafrir wrote a first-person account of night terrors in September.

"The social web has created an opportunity for an exciting revival of longform and Steve is perfectly positioned to pioneer the social future of narrative journalism at BuzzFeed," Ms. Shafrir said in an announcement about the hire. "Steve’s deep experience in magazine writing and editing really make him the ideal candidate to craft longform narratives that inspire conversation and sharing."

The Fix Goes Longform on Four Loko’s Founding Fathers

Nate Freeman — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:53:45 -0400

Months after the beloved caffeine-blasted booze got banned from New York's bodegas, Phusion Projects is hoping Four Loko can still sell without the kick.

Maer Roshan's new addiction news site, The Fix, has published a sprawling 5,000-word profile of the parent company that gifted the world with Four Loko. So who are these princes of the night? Jaisen Freeman is "a hulking athlete with a Vin Diesel crew cut." Jeff Wright is "a barrel-chested redhead with piercing blue eyes." Chris Hunter is "a smooth-talking charmer with a Tom Cruise grin."

You can relive the entire wired-but-also nicely buzzed saga: the sudden and stunning rise to fame, the fierce backlash, the quiet denouement.

Despite the alteration of the original recipe, Phusion Projects is charging ahead, banking on dedication to the brand despite the authority-inposed removal of the caffeine in the drink. They also claim to have a number of hush-hush concoctions to roll out in the future.

Bottoms up!

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

Longreads Wants Your ‘Mixtapes’ for New Lists Feature

Nate Freeman — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:50:14 -0400

As 2010 came to a close, Longreads -- a site that collects those superb stories that require a bit of a time investment -- asked for a little help from its friends. Notable writers were encouraged to blog about their top longform stories of the closing year, and the site's founder Mark Armstrong would include the list on the Longreads Tumblr. If you ever wondered what your favorite writer or editor has been Instapapering for their commute back to Brooklyn, you now had a place to go.

2010 has kicked the bucket, but the enthusiastic response inspired Armstrong to keep asking for endorsements. Media Decoder swapped emails with the Longreads creator about how he wants to solicit lists of longform faves from the people who should know.

What was most interesting was that, for many of us, looking at someone’s “longreads list” felt just as personal as listening to someone’s music playlist or mixtape. The choices reflect a mood, and people took the assignment very seriously. The result was an incredibly diverse collection of stories that others may have missed over the past year. The community reaction has been overwhelming. The lists did so well that this week I’m going to introduce Longreads Lists, in which we encourage people to create “reading lists” of their favorite 3-5 longreads based on a certain topics/themes/eras.

These mixtapes can be easily accessed through the "playlists" tag on the Longreads Tumblr. Click ahead to see all the people who picked Chris Jones, and then see what Jones picked himself. So much to read, so little time.

UPDATE: The Longreads Tumblr now has a post with more information about how to share your Longreads mixtapes.

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

Longreads Aggregates Articles You Never Get Around to Reading

Nate Freeman — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:21:01 -0400

After making too many frustrating 40-minute commutes with an empty Instapaper queue, Mark Armstrong, director of content at internet startup Bundle, decided to ask for some help. His idea: convince both consumers and producers of news to rally around the concept of "longreads." Armstrong snapped up the @longreads Twitter handle and hyped the #longreads Twitter tag — for use on tweeted links to lengthy stories. Now, the 1,200 examples of long-form journalism collected by the Twitter account are available on Longreads.com, which launched this morning.

The project attempts to merge the explosion of new media consumption platforms with the eternal tradition of the raconteur — the writer who needs an immense amount of space to tell a story. "Now that we have a time, a place, and a format where the best journalism in the world can thrive online, the appetite for it is obvious," Armstrong writes on his Tumblr page. "It’s on the iPhone, iPad and Kindle. It’s on apps like Instapaper, where you can read offline and on your own terms. And it’s from writers and reporters who can expand our worldview and move us to tears — or better yet, action — in 7,000 words."

Each piece on the Longreads site indicates the number of words and, using the average reading speed, the approximate amount of time it will take to read. For instance, the Vanity Fair piece that went up today about House Republican leader John Boehner contains 4220 words, and will take 17 minutes to read. Sounds like our daily commute on the F train! Perfect!

Already, the Twitter feeds for The Atlantic, Esquire, and Lapham's Quarterly have taken to adding #longreads when tweeting links to beefier pieces, and The Awl and Capital New York have longreads tags to bundle all that time-consuming goodness in one place.

Since we know you all have iPhones with Instapaper apps, get going on this!

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234