The Pudding

We're a small group that operates as a collective rather than hierarchical team. Much of our work is done autonomously, with individuals choosing their essays and owning the whole story, from research to code. Each team member can do every step: research and reporting, data analysis, design, writing, and code. One luxury that separates us from traditional newsrooms is our approach to publishing urgency. There are no deadlines because we are not tied to news events. With breaking news, it's difficult to gamble on weird, ambitious ideas if they must be published. No one will take on risky, creative projects when they're staring at a deadline. So we experiment, a lot. The creative process feels more like workshopping a movie script than critiquing a bar chart. Consequently, many of our ideas are killed during production, but we wouldn't have it any other way! It means we're trying unproven, never-done-before things. We're also trying to advance the craft. Visual journalism is still in its infancy. We don't have an established pattern language found in traditional reporting. Sometimes we'll attempt an unfamiliar visual approach-not because it's guaranteed to work, but because we won't know until we try. Rarely do organizations have the liberty to take such risks, yet we're small enough to experiment in the pursuit of quality. Why are you called "The Pudding?" See etymology.