Long-form reporting
The cover story. Columns, pull quotes, and images placed by the box's own layout rules.
Vol. 00 · Preview issue
The
Take Economy
Cover story
FeaturePhotoQuoteDossierAudioAd
Everyone has a take. Few show their work.
We're building a digital magazine for the attention age. Facts are settled before the arguing starts, and the algorithm deciding what you see is printed right on the page.
Get notified when issue one ships
Status
In development
Architecture spec written. Working front-end prototype built. Issue one is next.
“The site is the magazine.”
Design principle no. 1
01 · The idea
Print got the layout right. The web made everything else possible.
Pick up an old magazine, even a scanned one, and you already know how to read it. Feature on the left, photo on the right, pull quote breaking the column, ad in the corner. Every page is a set of boxes, and readers have understood that layout for a century.
Scans lose what the web does well: links, selectable text, search, sound, motion. The Take Economy keeps the magazine's layout and builds it on modern web tools. Issues are discrete and collectible, something you look forward to. And every page is live content, not a picture of one.
The name refers to the attention economy we all live in now, where a take spreads faster than the facts behind it. Our job is media literacy: helping readers agree on the facts first, then argue about what to do with them.
02 · Everything is a box
One building block. Every kind of story.
The box is the basic unit of the magazine. Each box type knows how to lay itself out. When we improve how dossiers look, every dossier in the archive improves with it.
The receipts
Multi-source investigations with timelines and a citation block for every claim.
In their words
Conversations you can read, or play as the original audio.
From the ground
Short dispatches with a place, a date, and a point.
Embedded right
A vertical Short sits in a vertical box. Each box matches the shape of its source.
Deep zoom
Zoom in on any image box directly, without a pop-up.
The line that matters
One line from the story, set in its own box.
03 · Have it your way
Read it, watch it, or listen to it. You choose for each box.
Presentation is set on each box, not for the whole site. Read the feature, listen to the interview on your commute, watch the field note.
Read
Selectable, searchable text with real links, typeset by the box's own layout rules.
Scroll turns the page
Scroll down for the next page, up for the previous one. You get the feel of flipping through an issue, and every page is still live and linkable.
Issues worth collecting
Each issue comes out complete, like a print edition, rather than as an endless feed.
Fast and findable
Every issue is built as static HTML that search engines can index. The page doesn't jump around while you read.
04 · The algorithm is a box
You can see the algorithm. You can adjust it.
In the archive, a story's size reflects how much attention readers keep giving it. A three-year-old piece that people still read stays big. Stories nobody visits shrink. An editorial floor stops the most popular boxes from crowding out everything else.
The ranking logic is also a box, on the front page, where you can see it. It lists every signal we collect, and you can adjust it.
- Time spent on a story
- Read, watch, or listen choice
- Zoom interactions
- Issue completion
What we don't collect: no third-party trackers and no cross-site tracking. We collect only our own aggregate signals and list every one.
Algorithm box · demo
size = floor × attention
Example stories and made-up values. The real weights and decay curve haven't been set. The layout only changes when you move a control.
05 · The build
What we're building, in order.
Five phases from our architecture spec, listed in build order.
-
1
Prototype built
The box system and page turning
Static box layouts with scroll-to-turn-page navigation.
-
2
Planned
Media in every box
Video, audio, slideshows, read-aloud, and deep zoom, each built into the box.
-
3
Planned
The attention engine
Box sizes driven by reader attention, with a decay curve and an editorial floor.
-
4
Planned
Live authoring
An AI-assisted Box Builder for our editors. Only editors use it, not readers.
-
5
Planned
The algorithm box, v2
The full reader-facing control panel for ranking.
Subscribe
Be there for issue one.
Want to know when it ships, or want to write, report, or partner with us? Send us a note.
Email us
Vol. 00 · Preview issue
The
Take Economy
Cover story
FeaturePhotoQuoteDossierAudioAd
Everyone has a take. Few show their work.
We're building a digital magazine for the attention age. Facts are settled before the arguing starts, and the algorithm deciding what you see is printed right on the page.
Get notified when issue one ships
Status
In development
Architecture spec written. Working front-end prototype built. Issue one is next.
“The site is the magazine.”
Design principle no. 1
01 · The idea
Print got the layout right. The web made everything else possible.
Pick up an old magazine, even a scanned one, and you already know how to read it. Feature on the left, photo on the right, pull quote breaking the column, ad in the corner. Every page is a set of boxes, and readers have understood that layout for a century.
Scans lose what the web does well: links, selectable text, search, sound, motion. The Take Economy keeps the magazine's layout and builds it on modern web tools. Issues are discrete and collectible, something you look forward to. And every page is live content, not a picture of one.
The name refers to the attention economy we all live in now, where a take spreads faster than the facts behind it. Our job is media literacy: helping readers agree on the facts first, then argue about what to do with them.
02 · Everything is a box
One building block. Every kind of story.
The box is the basic unit of the magazine. Each box type knows how to lay itself out. When we improve how dossiers look, every dossier in the archive improves with it.
Long-form reporting
The cover story. Columns, pull quotes, and images placed by the box's own layout rules.
The receipts
Multi-source investigations with timelines and a citation block for every claim.
In their words
Conversations you can read, or play as the original audio.
From the ground
Short dispatches with a place, a date, and a point.
Embedded right
A vertical Short sits in a vertical box. Each box matches the shape of its source.
Deep zoom
Zoom in on any image box directly, without a pop-up.
The line that matters
One line from the story, set in its own box.
03 · Have it your way
Read it, watch it, or listen to it. You choose for each box.
Presentation is set on each box, not for the whole site. Read the feature, listen to the interview on your commute, watch the field note.
Read
Selectable, searchable text with real links, typeset by the box's own layout rules.
Scroll turns the page
Scroll down for the next page, up for the previous one. You get the feel of flipping through an issue, and every page is still live and linkable.
Issues worth collecting
Each issue comes out complete, like a print edition, rather than as an endless feed.
Fast and findable
Every issue is built as static HTML that search engines can index. The page doesn't jump around while you read.
04 · The algorithm is a box
You can see the algorithm. You can adjust it.
In the archive, a story's size reflects how much attention readers keep giving it. A three-year-old piece that people still read stays big. Stories nobody visits shrink. An editorial floor stops the most popular boxes from crowding out everything else.
The ranking logic is also a box, on the front page, where you can see it. It lists every signal we collect, and you can adjust it.
- Time spent on a story
- Read, watch, or listen choice
- Zoom interactions
- Issue completion
What we don't collect: no third-party trackers and no cross-site tracking. We collect only our own aggregate signals and list every one.
Algorithm box · demo
size = floor × attention
Example stories and made-up values. The real weights and decay curve haven't been set. The layout only changes when you move a control.
05 · The build
What we're building, in order.
Five phases from our architecture spec, listed in build order.
-
1
Prototype built
The box system and page turning
Static box layouts with scroll-to-turn-page navigation.
-
2
Planned
Media in every box
Video, audio, slideshows, read-aloud, and deep zoom, each built into the box.
-
3
Planned
The attention engine
Box sizes driven by reader attention, with a decay curve and an editorial floor.
-
4
Planned
Live authoring
An AI-assisted Box Builder for our editors. Only editors use it, not readers.
-
5
Planned
The algorithm box, v2
The full reader-facing control panel for ranking.
Subscribe
Be there for issue one.
Want to know when it ships, or want to write, report, or partner with us? Send us a note.
Email us