The climate activists release their first print publication this week. But does a crisis-hit planet make for winning journalism?
In a move that feels more than slightly ironic, the climate activists Extinction Rebellion have decided to go into a media on the brink of extinction, having released their first newspaper this week. It is called the Hourglass, because time is running out – and because the XR logo kind of looks like one, in the right light – and comes with the strapline: “Rigorous journalism for fragile times”. More than 110,000 copies will be distributed, printed on paper made from freshly felled Amazonian trees … No, of course not, it’s recycled, most probably from litter picked up from events that didn’t even have anything to do with Extinction Rebellion, but which they attended to pick up litter because they’re better people than the rest of us.
According to a press release, readers can expect stories similar to those of “a mainstream newspaper like the Metro while at times hitting the tone of Take a Break”. “I never knew I had a twin sister until we chained ourselves to the same pink boat in Oxford Circus,” perhaps?