Immersive journalism—400 feet underwater on one breath

Nov 19, 2021

After a big story gets published, the journalist will usually tweet about the challenges and doubts they overcame while writing and reporting it. And well, they should! But what about the story’s editor? Doesn’t anyone care about their big feelings? Absolutely... writers do.

With apologies to your inbox, this is why I’ve taken the liberty of subscribing you to this newsletter. You’re probably a writer who cares about big stories. And as Long Lead’s editor, boy, do I have a tale for you.

The Depths She’ll Reach, the first multimedia feature published by Long Lead, is a rare literary treat: an incredible tale told remarkably well. We make those claims without the slightest concern of arrogance, because we had little to do with either of those facts. Alenka Artnik, the world’s greatest female freediver, has lived an inspiring life. And when the first draft of her story came in, Xan Rice’s prose read as gracefully as she dives.

Though our podcast Long Shadow: 9/11’s Lingering Questions with Garrett M. Graff was our first project, Xan was the first journalist we contracted after launching Long Lead in stealth in 2020. I can still remember reading his pitch almost a year ago. At that time, we hadn’t yet decided on anything — not a company name, nor an editorial direction. We just knew we wanted to produce journalism without compromises. His short query about a little-known Slovenian freediver who was put on the police force to support her training was fascinating... but not for us. I sure hope he places it somewhere, I thought.

Yet over the next three days, Xan’s pitch followed me around like a stray dog. Why not take it in? Why wait for someone else to publish it? Don’t you see how amazing this could be? So we talked to Xan and shortly after sent him a contract so he could go to The Bahamas to interview Alenka and report on her world record attempt.

As we waited for the first draft, we knew the story deserved more. Alenka’s inspiring personal history and willingness to lay her pain bare would require a reader experience that moved as effortlessly as she does, and it had to mimic freediving’s immersiveness. We dreamt up an ethereal design that multimedia producer Jacky Myint coded perfectly, and working with our design partner, Decimal Studios, we built a storytelling experience the likes of which none of us had never seen. Long Lead also commissioned freediving photographer Daan Verhoeven to shoot stunning underwater videography. And we even added audio of Alenka herself into the bespoke editorial experience.

There’s an audio clip of Alenka that we cut from the story, but it might be my favorite bit of reporting on this project. In it, she describes the exhilaration of freefall — the moment the water’s pressure has compressed a diver’s body so much that it starts sinking on its own. In that instant, she says, though you feel like a drop in the ocean, you also feel like you belong there and you’re part of something much bigger. That’s the same feeling I had working on this story. Everyone who contributed to this project (a pile of freelancers) was their own drop, but together we were a part of something bigger and were meant to be here, building this for you.

We hope you enjoy The Depths She’ll Reach. It’s free to read, with no ads. All we ask is that if you like it, please share it.

You can connect with Long Lead on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And if you’re interested in working with us, you can learn how at www.longlead.com.

More soon…

John Patrick Pullen
Founding Editor, Long Lead

Read “The Depths She’ll Reach”

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