Slate is an English-language online news and culture magazine created
in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael
Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft, as part of MSN. On December 21, 2004, it was purchased by
the Washington Post Company.
Former political correspondent Jacob Weisberg is the current editor and the Washington
Post Company's Cliff Sloan is Slate's publisher.[1] Slate (ISSN
1091-2339) is updated every day, and covers politics, arts and culture, sports, and news. It is ad-supported and has been available to read free of charge since 1999.
Background
Slate features regular and semi-regular columns such as Explainer, Chatterbox, and Dear Prudence. Many of the articles tend to be short and relatively lighthearted pieces.
There are also many meta-columns: collection and analysis of major newspapers, magazines,
blogs, and the like. It has a number of associated blogs, including
some of the most notable on the Internet, such as the Kausfiles. It also features frequent
week-long diary series from interesting people and a link to each day's Doonesbury,
whose website Slate hosts. Slate also features podcasts of several of its columns available for daily
download.[2]
Slate contributes to the National Public Radio show Day to Day.
Commentator Mickey Kaus's column "Kausfiles" is seen as one of the earliest blogs.
Slate features a set of online forum boards called "The Fray", the editing
and moderator duties of which are left up to a "Fray Editor."
In March 1998, Slate attracted considerable notice by charging a $19.95 annual subscription fee, becoming one of the
first non-pornographic sites to attempt a subscription-based business model. The scheme didn't work and, less than a year later,
in February 1999, Slate dropped the charge and returned to free content, citing both sluggish subscription sales and increased
advertising revenue. A similar subscription model would later be implemented by Slate's independently-owned competitor,
Salon.com, in April 2001. Salon.com is still primarily subscription-based as of 2007.
On July 15, 2005, Slate began offering a
podcast, featuring selected stories from the site read by Slate editor Andy Bowers. Another podcast, featuring the Explainer column, was later added, read by Slate foreign
editor June Thomas. A third, called Slate's Spoiler Special, reviews movies for people who have
already seen them.
In September 2005, Michael Kinsley returned to Slate, writing a weekly column to be
published simultaneously in Slate and the Washington Post.
On November 30, 2005, Slate started its daily
feature ”Today's Pictures,” featuring fifteen to twenty photographs from the archive at Magnum
Photos that share a common theme. The column also features two flash animated ”Interactive Essays” a month.
In June 2006, on its 10th anniversary, Slate unveiled a redesigned website. Later that year, Slate introduced "SlateV"[1], an online video magazine with content that
correlates to or expands upon their written articles.
Editorial stance
Slate's focus and editorial slant is politically liberal, as seen in choice of columnists, choice of and position on topics, and
featured cartoon, Doonesbury. During the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, a
significant majority of staff and contributors supported Democratic challenger John
Kerry.[3]
A more fine-grained analysis puts Slate slightly to the left of The New
Republic, but still to the right of Salon.com or The Nation. It includes many voices of the Clintonian /
Democratic Leadership Council / neoliberal point of view. These include two of its bloggers: Mickey
Kaus, whose favorite subjects include welfare reform and the potential for a future candidate from either party to reap
major political gains by taking a law-and-order stance on immigration issues; and Bruce Reed, who
was President Clinton's domestic
policy adviser, and is current president of the Democratic Leadership
Council. Jack Shafer, one of its top editors, has stated that he has voted for the Libertarian Party candidate for President in every election since he became eligible
to vote. (One unusual feature of the magazine is that it explicitly states its staff's biases, going so far as to publish the
presidential votes of individual staff members and writers[4].) Slate frequently publishes columns that advocate a neoclassical view of economics, for
example articles by professors Paul Krugman, Steven
Landsburg, and Tim Harford, who although perhaps classifiable as liberal, are still
part of the economic establishment and have each done significant research work.
On the occupation of Iraq, Slate has taken a "liberal hawk" perspective. This viewpoint
is embodied in the frequent contributions of Christopher Hitchens, William Saletan, Michael Kinsley, Anne Applebaum, and others. Timothy Noah is the only Slate
staffer who initially opposed the U.S. invasion, and even he was persuaded to abandon his relatively dovish position by
Colin Powell[5].
Since the war began, however, the magazine has been increasingly critical of the war's handling, most strongly in
Fred Kaplan's "War Stories" column.
Contributors and departments
Other recurring features
- The Book Club
- Culturebox
- Foreigners
- Dispatches
- Books
- Fashion
- Shopping
- Gaming
- The Movie Club
- Science
Summary Columns:
- Today's Papers
- Today's Blogs
- In Other Magazines
- Summary Judgement (with NPR's Day to Day)
Other notable contributors
References
- ^ Who We Are (Slate staff portraits) Accessed March 23, 2007
- ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2119317/
- ^ Slate Votes. Slate, October 26, 2004
- ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2108714/
- ^ Timothy Noah: Chatterbox Goes to War. Slate, February 10, 2003
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