Fresh on the heels of the news that Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea” if more fairy tale than it is memoir, a new website called Byliner launched this week whose sole purpose is to feature and promote long-form journalism. It’s first offering is…you guessed it…an 89 page evisceration of Mortenson and his work of fiction — a book all U.S. troops sent to Afghanistan were required to read before going to battle there.
The aforementioned evisceration, titled “Three Cups of Deceit,” is the work of Jon Krakauer — author of notable works like Into the Wild, Into Thin Air and Where Men Win Glory — and it was made available free for download for the first 72 hours of the site’s life, of which roughly 24 remain. So, in the words of Uproxx’s Drew Magary, “If you’re the kind of person who enjoys seeing someone get absolutely owned for 89 pages (and I am), then I strongly suggest you get crackin’.”
Byliner will offer what the online publishing industry calls “singles” — pieces of writing meant to be read in two hours or less, delivered quickly to the news consumer electronically without the usual lags of a plodding old publishing house. Techcrunch’s Sarah Lacy wrote an informative piece about the site, and while expressing great enthusiasm for what it’s setting out to do, she’s skeptical that there’s a market out there considerable enough to sustain it.
..half of Byliner’s business excites me. The other half I fear is a distraction from the more exciting side of the business. Let’s talk about that one first. Byliner.com is a discovery engine for readers to find great long form content. Say you like the style of Michael Lewis; Byliner will recommend other less-well-known, long-form journalists you might enjoy. It’s a rich database filled with back-catalogs of magazines, newspapers and the Web and a great way to find forgotten long-form pieces on a variety of subjects.
My issue isn’t with the UI or the mission of Byliner.com. I just don’t think people are sitting around waiting for more long-form pieces to read. If you’re like me you already have a stack of books you are trying to find time to get through and stacks back issues of the New Yorker, the Economist and Vanity Fair are taking over your house. My problem has never been finding more great long-form stuff to read– my problem is finding time to read it. I think there’s a niche group who will love this site. But largely, I think it’s designed for a mass audience that reporters like me wish existed. It’s one of those sites designed for the way we wish we were and the time we wish we had– never a great starting point when it comes to the consumer Web.
And, I’m not sure it allows you to find the best content, because even magazines and newspapers have been moving towards shorter and shorter articles. I doubt most up and coming reporters get much of an opportunity to write pieces that are more than 3,000 words long. I’ve probably written ten in 15 years.
Here’s hoping it works out.