In this week’s Media Confidential, Alan and Lionel are joined by Jonathan Shainin, founding editor of Equator, a new longform publication with ambitions to challenge inherited assumptions about journalism—and the world it describes.
The three discuss Jonathan’s journey through more “mainstream” media and why, after years in the industry, he feels independent media is the future. They look at the very different traditions of American and British longform journalism, and what each might learn from the other.
They talk about Equator’s unusual approach to how a publication can be organised, bringing together some of the most interesting writers and editors working today, from Pankaj Mishra to Mohsin Hamid and Nesrine Malik. Is this the beginning of a different kind of media institution?
Plus, Jonathan explains where the name Equator came from, Alan and Lionel delve into some of the ideas behind the latest issue, and ask what it might mean to look at familiar stories from somewhere else entirely. In a publication so concerned with making sense of the world, is there still room for a little lightness?
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