Slate

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 1:58pm on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Slate is doing away with "Today's Papers" and introducing a new "news aggregator" called "The Slatest," editor David Plotz announced on August 24, 2009:

"After 12 years, and almost 4,400 editions, we are ending "Today's Papers." We are also ending "In Other Magazines." This is like unplugging grandpa from the ventilator: excruciating but necessary. We believe that "The Slatest" preserves what is best about "Today's Papers" and "In Other Magazines" but is faster and more relevant.

So what is "The Slatest"? The heart of "The Slatest" is the Slate Dozen: A list of the 12 most important news stories, blog entries, magazine features, and Web videos of the moment. The Slate Dozen is published three times a day during the week: at 7 a.m., at noon, and at 5 p.m. This three-times-a-day pace is perhaps the most important element of "The Slatest," and it grew out of an insight from Slate "Pressbox" columnist Jack Shafer. In an editorial meeting one day, Jack pointed out that the news cycle is no longer daily but neither is it continuous. Rather, it has three parts.

Overnight, newspapers launch the news. They publish stories clarifying the events of yesterday; they break their own investigative stories; they print zeitgeist-defining feature articles and op-eds. The morning brings Phase 2, when Web media reacts to the news. Bloggers and other sites respond to the news that broke overnight, and newsmakers push back against or try to exploit these stories. Phase 3, the buildup, comes in the afternoon, as the events of the day unfold—congressional action, a presidential gaffe, turmoil in Asia. The media break this news, and analyze how it fits together with yesterday's top stories. Opinion makers try to shape how the day's events will play on the night's cable shows and in tomorrow's newspapers. The next morning, it all starts over again."

The full story:
http://slate.com/id/2225909/

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 2:34pm on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Writing at Slate, Jack Shafer neatly summarizes the role of publisher in journalism:

"The "un-interfering publisher" is one of journalism's great myths. Every publisher who has the power to hire and fire makes his wishes known, either overtly or covertly. When his signals are ignored or disobeyed, the promised editorial independence always vanishes. Always."

The full story:
http://www.slate.com/id/2222338/

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 2:29pm on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Slate is launching a new web site for women called Double X, Jenna Wortham of The New York Times reported on May 11, 2009:

"The editors of a new Web site for women from the people behind Slate have Sarah Palin and Eliot L. Spitzer to thank. Their foibles, in part, supplied the gas to help transform a chatty blog into a full-blown Web magazine.

The new site, Double X, which is set to start publishing Tuesday, grew from a group blog created on Slate in October 2007 called The XX Factor, after the pair of X chromosomes in women. The blog featured commentary on politics, sex and culture from several women who write for Slate, including Meghan O’Rourke, Hanna Rosin and Emily Bazelon."

The full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/business/media/12slate.html?ref=media

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 10:16pm on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Jack Shafer of Slate says that stealing the work of other publications is an American journalistic tradition:

"I personally don't like the way the Huff Post "showcases" the work of other journalists, but I don't get heated about it, either (with exception of the violation of the Chicago Reader mentioned above). Borrowing, sponging, lifting, scrounging, leaching, pinching, and outright theft of other publications' work is firmly in the American journalistic tradition."

Read the full story:
http://www.slate.com/id/2216251/