Dear reader,

By definition, news is nothing without “newness.” Speed is baked into the equation.

You already know that. And you also know that it’s been that way forever. Yellow journalism. Propaganda. If it bleeds it leads.

But have you ever wondered, practically speaking, how to actually slow it down? Here at Readup, it’s something we think about constantly.

Slow is in the Readup DNA.

The platform literally slows you down. I have seen it happen. I have seen the way that people use social media with frantic fingers and twitchy eyes. And I have seen the way that people transition from that to reading on Readup. They settle in. They curl up, just as they would with a book or a kitten. It’s a beautiful thing -- beautiful because it’s slow. (And because I just said kitten.)

We focus all of our time on that magical interaction between you, reader, and whatever you’re reading on Readup. Specifically, in that moment, we’re trying to disappear.

And because that interaction (reading!) is a slow one, the whole network is slower. It moves at a conversational pace. Information has to marinate with several people before it starts creeping up the list, exposing it to more readers. We’re killing fake news by killing the knee-jerk reaction.

Good stories take time to write. And good writing takes time to read. “Hot takes” don’t do well on Readup for the simple reason that they’re often not read-worthy. Meanwhile, the Readup community seems to have a knack for sniffing up older content, classics worth reading again now.

Coronavirus is all over Readup. That was inevitable; it changed life all over the planet. But we need time to process. We need time to think. And thankfully, that’s exactly what Readup provides.

Have a great week,

Bill