Automattic

Happy 15th birthday, Longreads. It started out as a Twitter hashtag experiment. I was looking for stories to read on Instapaper during my subway commutes. It ended up as a National Magazine Award-winning site that has published original work by many amazing writers and journalists. But when I think about the early days, I think a lot about David Carr. The New York Times columnist had no idea who I was, but he was encouraging and supportive from the beginning. He eventually wrote about the site, and the fact that he deemed Longreads to be a worthy project meant the world to me. He was supportive of so many others in journalism, inside and outside of the Times. We weren’t well-funded startups. We hadn’t raised millions of dollars or gone viral. We were just trying to put a spotlight on great work. There were many others who believed in Longreads (possibly before even I did). A year prior, I had come up with the idea of Longreads as a website, but couldn't find anyone to help me build the site. So I launched it on Twitter instead. Looking back reminds me once again about the importance of putting your work out into the world — maybe before you're even ready — and finding your people. Longreads built community among readers and writers, and it encouraged people to share work from small and large publishers. It’s still doing that today, and I’m thrilled that it lives on, with a team of editors at Automattic still recommending their favorite stories. These days it can be very easy to surrender our tastes, interests — and what we decide to create — to the whims of algorithms. But there is still great power in a community with a mission. All of us can help elevate stories that are deeply reported, nuanced, and worthy of the world's attention. Let’s keep doing that. Leave a comment and tell me the last great thing you read. #longreads #stories #journalism