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20 things we learned in five years of slow journalism

In January 2011 we launched Delayed Gratification in an attempt to offer an antidote to the increasing speed of news journalism. We didn’t know if we would make it to issue two, but thanks to the support of our readers we are now celebrating our fifth birthday. To mark the occasion we’ve gathered together some of the most interesting things we learned during the life of the magazine to date.

1
The EDL has an LGBT division

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2
There's never been a murder in The Archers

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3
Al-Qaeda used to give its members paid holiday leave

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4
Saddam Hussein commissioned a film starring Oliver Reed

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5
Big Bird was (briefly) deployed in Pakistan

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6
The Napoleonic wars pushed the UK into peak debt

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7
West Ham could have won the Premier League

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8
A crowdfunding campaign was launched to create a 3D printed gun

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9
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band helped spur on the Velvet Revolution

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10
Gabriel García Márquez once took a plane ride with Hugo Chávez

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11
Margaret Thatcher was most remembered for the Falklands War

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12
An aviation engineer from Derby became a king in Nigeria

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13
The mafia regularly dumped toxic waste in the Italian countryside

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14
Gold loaves of bread were found in Viktor Yanukovych’s estate

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15
Coal mining in Turkey is 361 times more dangerous than in the US

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16
You really can look a million dollars

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17
New Zealand is the best country

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18
“Je suis Charlie” was coined within 30 minutes of the Charlie Hebdo attack

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19
George Osborne likes internships

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20
Over half of Syria’s population has been displaced

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Photo credits: James Montague, John Stillwell/PA Archive/PA Images, David Guttenfelder/AP/Press Association Images, British Film Institute, Matt Sayles/AP/Press Association Images, Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire/Press Association Images, Nigel French/PA Wire/Press Association Images, Jay Janner/AP/Press Association Images, Pedro Lara/AP/Press Association Images, PA Wire/Press Association Images, PA Wire/Press Association Images, Susan Schulman, Yvonne de Rosa, Raphaël Vinot, Emrah Gurel/AP/Press Association Images, Mark Lennihan/AP/Press Association Images, Rob Griffith/AP/Press Association Images, Jason DeCrow/AP/Press Association Images, Ben Birchall/PA Archive/PA Images, Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/Press Association Images.

A slower, more reflective type of journalism”
Creative Review

Jam-packed with information... a counterpoint to the speedy news feeds we've grown accustomed to”
Creative Review

A leisurely (and contrary) look backwards over the previous three months”
The Telegraph

Quality, intelligence and inspiration: the trilogy that drives the makers of Delayed Gratification”
El Mundo

Refreshing... parries the rush of 24-hour news with 'slow journalism'”
The Telegraph

A very cool magazine... It's like if Greenland Sharks made a newspaper”
Qi podcast

The UK's second-best magazine” Ian Hislop
Editor, Private Eye
Private Eye Magazine

Perhaps we could all get used to this Delayed idea...”
BBC Radio 4 - Today Programme