Slate (magazine)

Not to be confused with Slant Magazine.

Slate
Type of site
Online magazine
OwnerThe Slate Group
Created byMichael Kinsley
EditorHillary Frey
URLslate.com
slate.fr
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional for Slate Plus and commenting only (US readers)
Metered paywall (non-US readers)
Launched1996; 28 years ago (1996)
Current statusActive
ISSN1090-6584 (print)
1091-2339 (web)
OCLC number728292344

Slate is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2004, it was purchased by The Washington Post Company (later renamed the Graham Holdings Company), and since 2008 has been managed by The Slate Group, an online publishing entity created by Graham Holdings. Slate is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C.[1]

Slate, which is updated throughout the day, covers politics, arts and culture, sports, and news. According to its former editor-in-chief Julia Turner, the magazine is "not fundamentally a breaking news source", but rather aimed at helping readers to "analyze and understand and interpret the world" with witty and entertaining writing.[2] As of mid-2015, it publishes about 1,500 stories per month.[3]

A French version, slate.fr, was launched in February 2009 by a group of four journalists, including Jean-Marie Colombani, Eric Leser, and economist Jacques Attali. Among them, the founders hold 50 percent in the publishing company, while The Slate Group holds 15 percent.[4][5] In 2011, slate.fr started a separate site covering African news, Slate Afrique, with a Paris-based editorial staff.[6]

As of 2021, the magazine is both ad-supported and has a membership model with a metered paywall. It is known, and sometimes criticized, for having adopted contrarian views, giving rise to the term "Slate Pitches".[7][8][9] It has a generally liberal editorial stance.[10][11][12]

  1. ^ "Slate Magazine: Private Company Information – Businessweek". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  2. ^ Levy, Nicole (September 30, 2014). "Long-serving deputy Julia Turner takes the reins at Slate". Capital New York. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  3. ^ "Unlimited FAQ". Slate. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  4. ^ "Interview: Jacob Weisberg, Chairman, Slate Group: Breaking Out of the Beltway". CBS News. February 15, 2009. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  5. ^ "Slate.fr: Jean-Marie Colombani à l'assaut du Web, actualité Tech & Net – Le Point". Le Point (in French). February 10, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2013.
  6. ^ "Slate Afrique". VoxEurop. June 20, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  7. ^ "Contrarianism's end?". The Economist. October 19, 2009.
  8. ^ Weisberg, Jacob (June 19, 2006). "What Makes Slate Slatey?". Slate. To be a Slatey writer, you must cut through the media welter ... This can be done in a number of ways. [One] is to make the contrarian case that all the common assumptions about a subject are simply and hopelessly wrong.
  9. ^ Coscarelli, Joe (October 23, 2009). "Slate's Contrarian Ways Mocked on Twitter". Mediaite.
  10. ^ Blake, Aaron (October 21, 2014). "Ranking the media from liberal to conservative, based on their audiences". Washington Post. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  11. ^ Wolff, Michael (January 2007). "No Jokes, Please, We're Liberal". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  12. ^ Winter, Jessica (May 21, 2015). "Slate Isn't Too Liberal. But..." Slate. Retrieved September 21, 2017.