News has become noise. We are overwhelmed by information. Too many newsrooms are chasing the news, but missing the story. And the power gap is widening. Journalism exists to hold those in power to account - but the divide between the powerful and the powerless is getting bigger.
It’s time to open up journalism.
Tortoise editors have had enough of projects with codenames. We’re done with having meetings behind closed doors. We think we’ll do better journalism by opening up and giving everyone a seat at the table.
We’re packing up and moving our whole newsroom to the Tate for a week. Come up, meet the editors and help us redraw the lines of political power, cultural power and social power that govern our lives. Help us tackle some big questions...
What are the new rules of British politics?
Is big tech too powerful? And if so, how do we wrestle that power back?
How do we decolonise art?
There’s plenty going on….
- Join our daily editorial conferences and tell us: what’s on your mind?
- Pitch a story idea, or help develop someone else’s
- Star in your very own satirical cartoon from our resident cartoonist, Edith
- Explore an exhibition of hard-hitting photo journalism
About Tortoise
Tortoise is a different kind of newsroom, for a slower, wiser news. Tortoise became the biggest journalism project ever on Kickstarter in late 2018 and was launched to the public in April 2019. Tortoise is built with and for its members, of whom it has almost 30,000 at January 2020.
Tortoise was co-founded by James Harding, former Director of BBC News, Katie Vanneck-Smith, former President of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal and Matthew Barzun, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K.