140 Characters vs. 14000 Words: The New Long Form
In the age of shortened attention spans and journalism that exists in 140 characters or less, how does long-form journalism not only compete but prevail in the digital space? Slate editor David Plotz, creator of Slate’s noted fresca program, will showcase some of the latest and most engaging interactive features that are redefining long-form journalism on the web. Evan Ratliff, contributing editor at Wired and founder and editor of The Atavist, will present the newest opportunities for interactivity within long-form in-app. This isn’t your grandmother’s long-form -- the innovations showcased in this presentation move us to the next phase of the medium, helping to transform long-form journalism pieces into traffic success stories, and a boon for advertisers.
Presenters
David Plotz is editor of Slate. Before joining the magazine in 1996, Plotz was a senior editor and staff writer for the Washington City Paper. Plotz has written for the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Rolling Stone, GQ, the New Republic, and the Washington Post, among other publications. He is the author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank and, most recently, Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible, based on his "Blogging the Bible" series for Slate.
Evan Ratliff is the co-founder and editor of The Atavist (www.atavist.net), a digital publishing house producing narrative, multimedia nonfiction. Launched in 2011, The Atavist and its software publishing platform have been featured everywhere from the New York Times to Gizmodo as a new model for digital storytelling. As a writer, Evan is the author of "Lifted," the story of one of the history's most audacious heists, and his work appears regularly in Wired, The New Yorker, National Geographic, and many other publications. He is the co-author of “Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World” (HarperCollins, 2005), about innovation and counterterrorism. A past finalist for the National Magazine Award, his writing on science, technology, crime, privacy, and terrorism has appeared in numerous anthologies, including “The Best of Technology Writing” 2006 and 2010, “The Best American Magazine Writing 2010,” and “The Best American Nonrequired Writing 2010.”
Sunday, March 11
