Slate (magazine) Totally Explained

Everything about Slate Magazine totally explained

Slate is an English-language online current-affairs 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 John Alderman is Slate's publisher. Slate 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 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. 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. In 2007, Slate introduced "Slate V"(External Link

), 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.
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's 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.) Slate frequently publishes columns that advocate a neoclassical view of economics, for example articles by professors Paul Krugman, Steven Landsburg, and Tim Harford, who embrace capitalism despite their general left-of-center political alignment.
On the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Slate took a "liberal hawk" perspective, as represented in the contributions of Christopher Hitchens, William Saletan, Michael Kinsley, Anne Applebaum, and others. Timothy Noah is the only full-time Slate staffer who initially opposed the invasion, and even he was persuaded to abandon his relatively dovish position by Colin Powell. In the years since the occupation began, however, the magazine has been increasingly critical of its management, most strongly in Fred Kaplan's "War Stories" column.

Contributors and departments

Emily Bazelon ('Family'/'Jurisprudence')
Henry Blodget ('Go East, Young Man')
Paul Boutin ('Technology')
Bryan Curtis ('The Middlebrow')
John Dickerson ('Politics')
Elisabeth Eaves ('The Best Policy')
Daniel Engber ('Explainer')
Edward Jay Epstein ('The Hollywood Economist')
Mia Fineman ('Art')
Bonnie Goldstein ('Hot Document')
David Greenberg ('History Lesson')
Daniel Gross ('Moneybox')
Michael Grunwald ('The Zeitgeist Checklist')
Christopher Hitchens ('Fighting Words')
Fred Kaplan ('War Stories')
Mickey Kaus ('Kausfiles'/'Gearbox')
Michael Kinsley ('Readme')
Steven Landsburg ('Everyday Economics')
Josh Levin ('Sports Nut')
Dahlia Lithwick ('Jurisprudence')
Eric Liu ('Teachings')

Stephen Metcalf ('The Dilettante')

Timothy Noah ('Chatterbox'/'Hot Document')

Meghan O'Rourke ('The Highbrow')

Josh Patner ('Fashion')

Troy Patterson ('Television')

Robert Pinsky ('Poetry editor')

David Plotz ('Blogging the Bible')

Daniel Politi ('Today's Papers')

Bruce Reed ('The Has-Been')

Jody Rosen ('Music Box')

William Saletan ('Human Nature'/'The Frame Game')

Jack Shafer ('Press Box')

Mike Steinberger‎ ('Wine's World'/'Drink')

Dana Stevens ('Surfergirl' through 2005/'Movies')

Garry Trudeau ('Doonesbury')

Seth Stevenson ('Ad Report Card'/'Well-Traveled')

Eric Umansky ('Today's Papers')

Jacob Weisberg ('Bushisms'/'The Big Idea')

Tim Wu ('Technology'/'Jurisprudence')

Emily Yoffe ('Dear Prudence'/'Human Guinea-pig')

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

Fareed ZakariaFurther Information

Get more info on 'Slate Magazine'.

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