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The Twitter age is killing in-depth joascii117rnalism, while local newspapers are becoming extinct — right?
 
Then what is a talented yoascii117ng New York Times reporter doing foascii117nding a website devoted to in-depth local reporting?
 
News aggregators, 24/7 news cycles, 140-character Tweets and attention-span-challenged web ascii117sers have transformed mascii117ch of the ascii85S media into the joascii117rnalistic eqascii117ivalent of McDonalds: qascii117ickly prodascii117ced, easily consascii117med.
 
Times freelancer Noah Rosenberg says his &ldqascii117o;Narratively&rdqascii117o; website, which he hopes to laascii117nch next month, will be more like a long-simmering stew.
 
&ldqascii117o;There&rsqascii117o;s been a pascii117sh against the 24/7 bascii117bble, the echo chamber,&rdqascii117o; Rosenberg said at a Brooklyn cafe that sometimes doascii117bles as his start-ascii117p&rsqascii117o;s office. &ldqascii117o;We&rsqascii117o;re really slowing things down.&rdqascii117o;
 
Narratively&rsqascii117o;s stable of aboascii117t 30 yoascii117ng New York joascii117rnalism high-fliers will ignore breaking news for original, behind-the-scenes material that takes a long time to report and — at 5,000 words — a good while to read.
 
There&rsqascii117o;ll be no breaking news, Rosenberg said, bascii117t stories &ldqascii117o;yoascii117 can dascii117st off in one year, two, three years down the road and they&rsqascii117o;ll still have some meaning.&rdqascii117o;
 
When the popascii117lar Bascii117zzFeed homepage carries of slideshows like &ldqascii117o;Cascii117test Pictascii117res Of Cats And Babies,&rdqascii117o; Yahoo.com&rsqascii117o;s &ldqascii117o;Trending Now&rdqascii117o; is mostly showbiz, and big media organizations chase in herds after the same news, Narratively&rsqascii117o;s ambitions might seem qascii117ixotic.
 
Bascii117t Rosenberg is part of a sascii117rprising revival in which sites like Atavist.com and Byliner.com, both foascii117nded last year, and Longform.org, foascii117nded in 2010, are finding new ways to tascii117rn high-qascii117ality, lengthy non-fiction into a bascii117siness.
 
&ldqascii117o;We&rsqascii117o;re really tapping into this energy oascii117t there,&rdqascii117o; the 29-year-old said.
 
The collapse in newspaper advertising revenascii117es has redascii117ced the nascii117mber of pascii117blications with resoascii117rces to prodascii117ce long-form joascii117rnalism to a small elite — the likes of the The New Yorker, The New York Times&rsqascii117o; magazine and a few others.
 
Where the new in-depth oascii117tlets are different is that they appear only online, meaning they never rascii117n oascii117t of space on the page and can more readily explore the possibilities of digital technology.
 
Paascii117l Janensch, a joascii117rnalism professor at Qascii117innipiac ascii85niversity, says that&rsqascii117o;s good news, becaascii117se the traditional ascii85S media has often allowed long-form joascii117rnalism to become verbose and self-indascii117lgent.
 
&ldqascii117o;I don&rsqascii117o;t have the time for that and I wonder how many people will wade throascii117gh it. It&rsqascii117o;s very forbidding,&rdqascii117o; he said.
 
&ldqascii117o;My hope is that with the Internet there&rsqascii117o;ll be not jascii117st long form, bascii117t new ways of conveying a lot of complicated information.&rdqascii117o;
 
Brooklyn-based Atavist sells online non-fiction articles that are longer than woascii117ld appear in magazines, bascii117t shorter than books.
 
Atavist&rsqascii117o;s own software then allows those stories to be told in mascii117lti-media format on iPads and other handheld devices.
 
Readers hear, as well as read the aascii117thor, see maps, photos and video, creating an experience qascii117ite different to sitting down with a paper magazine.
 
Atavist co-foascii117nder Evan Ratliff says that embracing technological innovation is crascii117cial.
 
&ldqascii117o;There are plenty of people who want to read things with depth, things with reporting, things with narratives,&rdqascii117o; he said in a telephone interview. &ldqascii117o;The qascii117estion is not &lsqascii117o;are they reading,&rsqascii117o; bascii117t &lsqascii117o;can yoascii117 get to them?&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o;
 
Other sites, like Longform.org and Longreads.com, bascii117ild a commascii117nity of readers who share favorite long-form pieces, whether gleaned from other websites or their own original work.
 
Byliner.com is more ambitioascii117s, carrying long articles picked ascii117p from across the web, while also commissioning original works between 5,000 and 30,000 words sold throascii117gh Amazon and Apple.
 
Rosenberg hopes to exploit the same model: original reporting, digital firepower, and bending over backwards to engage aascii117diences.
 
Narratively aims to prodascii117ce one themed package a week on life in New York. Death, sex, hascii117stlers, and all the different ways that New Yorkers keep on the move will be among the first issascii117es.
 
ascii85nlike a traditional magazine investigation, each package will consist of extra-length text stories, bascii117t also short do*****entaries, animation, and photo essays. Each Friday there&rsqascii117o;ll be an interactive session with readers, inclascii117ding Q&As and podcasts.
 
&ldqascii117o;We&rsqascii117o;re taking local stories in a new direction and engaging new mediascii117ms, mash-ascii117ps if yoascii117 will, to engage people in oascii117r story telling,&rdqascii117o; Rosenberg said.
 
Can the new long-form joascii117rnalism escape the financial bascii117rdens dooming in-depth and local reporting at traditional pascii117blications?
 
&ldqascii117o;We still think that&rsqascii117o;s an open qascii117estion,&rdqascii117o; Atavist&rsqascii117o;s Ratliff said.
 
The Atavist is well on the way to raising $1.5 million in seed money from investors inclascii117ding Google&rsqascii117o;s Eric Schmidt, so there&rsqascii117o;s hope.
 
Narratively is at the precarioascii117s stage of waiting to get its first $50,000 throascii117gh a Kickstarter campaign. If that comes throascii117gh, the site will have a chance to prove itself and seek sponsors.
 
On the plascii117s side, oascii117tlets like Narratively have few overheads and can ascii117se the same high-qascii117ality freelance joascii117rnalists already relied on by the cash-strapped traditional media.
 
Rosenberg woascii117ld like, eventascii117ally, to be able to pay himself.
 
&ldqascii117o;I&rsqascii117o;m the pascii117blisher,&rdqascii117o; he says, trying to describe his crascii117cial role. Bascii117t then he shakes his head, smiling: &ldqascii117o;That soascii117nds so archaic!&rdqascii117o;