Latterly acquires narrative journalism website Compass Cultura

Latterly, a startup publishing narrative journalism online that got its start through a Kickstarter campaign last year, has acquired Compass Cultura, a website that publishes narrative travel journalism. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Jeff Campagna, the founder and creative director of Compass Cultura, announced the news in an email to subscribers today. The email is also published on Medium.

Compass Cultura has published 12 ad-free issues over the course of a little more than a year and has developed a subscriber base of 171 people paying $2 per month. Compass Cultura’s latest issue contained, among other things, a long story about the history of the Panama hat.

Now subscribers will get access to Latterly’s content, which appears each month online and in the Latterly iOS app, Campagna wrote.

“We expect the majority (~90%) to maintain their subscriptions through the transition because of the similar editorial focus, the quality of the journalism and the fact their price will remain $2/month (rather than increasing to Latterly’s $3/month rate),” Latterly cofounder Ben Wolford told VentureBeat in an email.

Funding and publishing narrative journalism is hard, especially when small outfits like the two-person Compass Cultura are competing with venture-backed companies with sprawling teams of people. Just yesterday, for instance, Business Insider announced the launch of a new site called Tech Insider, which will disseminate narrative journalism, among other things. There are also narrative startups like Atavist. Byliner sold off to Vook last year.

Now little Latterly, which published its first issue in November after raising more than $12,000 through Kickstarter, has the opportunity to publish for a wider base of readers.