The essential role of an aggregator is to make choices for readers, usually about which topics, sources or issues are worth paying attention to. A new aggregation and reading app launching Wednesday for the iPad holds a different standard — length.
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- Longform for the iPad aggregates long pieces of writing from popular sources.
For most sources, the cutoff is 2,000 words, Longform co-founder Max Linsky told me, though editors can exercise discretion to include a great 1,500-word story or cut out a 4,000-word item that doesn’t belong.
“We really want this to be a home for this kind of writing on the device,” Linsky said. “The goal is to try to create a central place people can rely on to find a very particular kind of writing, which I think is really in a golden age.”
The app, which costs $4.99, embraces some popular ideas. Readers can share stories to social networks and save them to another reading app like Instapaper.
It also offers a reading view that strips an article down to a distraction-free page of just the text and photos, with customizable typography and spacing. First, though, the app displays articles on the publishers’ original Web page, ads and all; a user must switch to the reading view.
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/161428/new-ipad-app-aggregates-only-long-form-journalism/
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