Slow news as a concept is not new. To followers of slow news, it is a return to practices that were in place before the internet, and before the 24-hour news cycle. Slow news publications exist. Some are in their infancy and others have existed since before the internet in the form of alternative weeklies.

Eugene Weekly was founded in the 1980s and is still in circulation. Like many alternative weeklies, the paper provides a biased point of view on local events.

Objectivity in journalism is a matter of debate. The moment a journalist chooses what story to cover or which quote to use from which source they chose to interview, the journalist injects a story with their inherent subjectivity.

“My newspaper is biased,” said Camilla Mortensen, Editor of Eugene Weekly. “That bias that some criticize alt weeklies for is also what makes readers really interested in it.”

Mortensen said there is still a need for a “so-called objective daily paper.” Daily papers provide the daily news, which is needed for the “synthesis reporting” of an alternative weekly. Alternative weeklies report the news with context.

The Eugene daily paper, the Register Guard is no longer locally owned. The paper was bought by Gatehouse Media. Eugene Weekly on the other hand, remains locally owned.

“One of the values of an alt weekly is this local focus, this connection to the community, the in-depth reporting and storytelling that is affected by the digital age but is not destroyed by it,” Mortensen said.

Despite the local focus, the weekly continues to look for financial support. A rising cost in production threatens the stability of the publication.

Jennifer Rauch, professor of journalism and communications studies at Long Island University, also questions the sustainability of slow news.

“The membership model like NPR uses is coming to the forefront as one of the main means that journalists can use to ensure their projects,” Rauch said.

The U.K. publication, Delayed Gratification, is a slow news magazine that utilizes a membership-based business model that has allowed the magazine to operate for eight years.

“We talk about members and we talk about supporters rather than subscribers,” said Matthew Lee, co-founder of Delayed Gratification. “We want people to feel like they’re part of a community.

Delayed Gratification is a quarterly publication that is produced once every three months. The objective of the publication is to tell “stories that are enhanced by the benefit of hindsight.”

Delayed Gratification focuses on a more contextualized view of reporting. The publication aims for depth, accuracy, nuance, and perspective.

“We’re not doing anything new, if anything it’s very old fashioned,” Lee said.

In 2018, Italian production company, IK Produzioni is filming a documentary on the slow news movement. The documentary looks at the movement through an international lens, and looks at global responses to the 24-hour news cycle. The documentary is set to release in 2019.