 | |
-1.webp) Screenshot of the website in December 2024 | |
Type of site | Online magazine |
|---|---|
| Available in | 2 languages |
List of languages
| |
| Owner | The Slate Group |
| Founder | Michael Kinsley |
| Editor | Hillary Frey |
| URL | |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration |
|
| Launched | June 24, 1996; 29 years ago (1996-06-24) |
| Current status | Active |
| ISSN | 1090-6584 (print) 1091-2339 (web) |
| OCLC number | 728292344 |
Slate is anonline magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 byMichael Kinsley withMicrosoft's backing. In 2004, it was purchased by The Washington Post Company (later renamed theGraham Holdings Company), and since 2008 has been managed byThe 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]
As of 2025,[update] the magazine is both ad-supported and has a membership model with a meteredpaywall. It is known, and sometimes criticized, for adoptingcontrarian views, which gave rise to the term "Slate Pitches". It has a generallyliberal editorial stance.[2][3]
Slate was founded in June 24, 1996[4][5][6] byMichael Kinsley under the ownership ofMicrosoft. Kinsley wrote that one of the site's goals was proving that "the economies of cyberspace make it easier for our kind of journalism to pay for itself".[7] The outlet was considered an early pioneer ofdigital journalism and popularized features such ashyperlinks and communications between writers and readers. The website received much user traffic from theMSN network through its relationship with Microsoft.[8] In 1998,Slate introduced apaywall-based business model that attracted up to 20,000 subscribers but was later abandoned.[9][10] The outlet achieved a profitable quarter in 2003 and broke even in 2004 with $6 million in revenue from six million monthly readers.[8]
In 2004, the magazine was purchased byThe Washington Post Company.[11][12] An agreement in the purchase stipulated that the MSN website would continue to redirect toSlate.[12] It introducedSlate V in 2007, an online video magazine website.[13] Later, in 2008, The Washington Post Company launched The Slate Group, an online publishing entity, to manageSlate and other online magazines.[14] The same year,Slate launchedThe Root, an African American news site, and "The Big Money", a business news website.[13]
In 2011,Slate switched theircontent management system from Gutenberg toAdobe CQ5.[15] In the same year, the magazine laid off several high-profile journalists, including co-founderJack Shafer andTimothy Noah (author of theChatterbox column). At the time, it had around 40 full-time editorial staff.[16]
In 2012, then-editor David Plotz spoke atSouth by Southwest onSlate's efforts in running long-form journalism. Plotz discussed their commitment for all editors to spend four to six weeks each year to focus on a project, nicknamed "Fresca" projects, instead of working on news output.[17]Slate also launched the "Slate Book Review", a monthly books section edited by Dan Kois,[18] and a dedicated ad sales team.[19]
In 2013, the magazine was redesigned under the guidance of design directorVivian Selbo.[20] After The Washington Post Company soldThe Washington Post to Jeff Bezos in 2013,Slate's parent company was renamed toGraham Holdings, which continued to own the magazineSlate.[9]
In 2014, it was estimated that the website had 30 million visitors monthly.[21] The same year,Slate introduced a paywall system called "Slate Plus", offering ad-free podcasts and bonus materials.[9][22] A year later, it had attracted 9,000 subscribers, generating about $500,000 in annual revenue.[23] By September 2014,Slate became profitable after preceding years had seen layoffs and falling ad revenue.[24]Slate then moved all content behind a metered paywall for international readers in June 2015, attributing the change to advertisers targeting domestic readers.[25]
In 2018,Slate staff members joined theWriters Guild of America, East. After union members authorized astrike,Slate agreed to a three-yearcollective bargaining agreement in January 2019.[26]
In 2021,Mike Pesca, host of the podcastThe Gist, was suspended fromSlate after aSlack discussion onDonald G. McNeil Jr. and the usage of a racial slur,[27][28] ultimately parting ways and taking his podcast independent.[29]
On September 16, 2025,Slate filed a lawsuit againstGoogle over alleged antitrust violations.[30]
In February 2009, slate.fr, a French-language offshoot ofSlate, was launched. Its five founders were:Le Monde editorsJean-Marie Colombani andÉric Leser [fr],Libération and20 minutes editorJohan Hufnagel [fr],Les Echos editorÉric Le Boucher [fr], and political advisorJacques Attali. The founders held fifty percent in the publishing company, while The Washington Post Company held 15 percent.[31][32] In 2011, slate.fr started a separate site covering African news,Slate Afrique, with a Paris-based editorial staff.[33]
Since 2006,[34]Slate has been known for publishingcontrarian pieces arguing against commonly held views about a subject, giving rise to the #slatepitchesTwitterhashtag in 2009.[24] TheColumbia Journalism Review definedSlatepitches as "an idea that sounds wrong or counterintuitive proposed as though it were the tightest logic ever".[35] In 2014,Slate's then editor-in-chief, Julia Turner, acknowledged that a reputation for counterintuitive arguments forms part ofSlate's "distinctive" brand, but argued that the hashtag misrepresents the site's journalism.[24]
In 2019,Slate editors such as David Plotz noted that theSlate pitch had become difficult due to the polarizing politics of theTrump administration.[36] In 2022,The New York Times reported that anonymousSlate staffers felt that the publication's reputation for contrarian views had diminished over the years.[37] Former Slate writerMatthew Yglesias concurred with this reporting, noting that the journalism industry had become homogeneous in recent times.[38]
According to theNieman Foundation for Journalism,Slate has been involved inpodcasts "almost from the very beginning" of the medium. Its first podcast,Political Gabfest, was released in 2005 and was inspired bySlate's editorial conference calls.Slate podcasts have gotten longer over the years. The originalGabfest ran 15 minutes; by 2012, most ran about 45 minutes. In 2012, it was reported thatSlate's podcasts had the highest advertisement and sell-through rates of their content on account of high user engagement.[39]
By June 2012,Slate had expanded their lineup to 19 podcasts, withPolitical Gabfest andCulture Gabfest being the most popular.[39] This count had shrunk to 14 by February 2015, with all receiving six million downloads per month.[40] In 2018, it offered a slate of 25 podcasts.[41]
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism regarded the outlet as the "web's oldest living magazine".[15] In 2004,The New York Times opined that the publication produced "well-regarded journalism".[8] In 2010, the Columbia Journalism Review commendedSlate's high-quality editorial standards and praised its usage of interactive and multimedia content, calling them "consistently innovative, and often a big hit with readers".[17] In 2019,The New York Times wrote thatSlate was known for "counterintuitive analysis and its many podcasts".[26] In 2022, Katie Robertson of theNew York Times notedSlate was known for its "smart analysis, interesting debate and top-tier journalistic talent".[37]
In 2003,Slate won theNational Magazine Award (NMA) for General Excellence.[8]Slate was also nominated for four digital National Magazine Awards in 2011 and won theNMA for General Excellence.[48][49] Between 2009-2014,Slate was nominated for an NMA 14 times, winning the award twice.[21]Slate received an NMA for general excellence in 2016.[26]Slate's investment in podcasts has led to receiving some awards, includingSlow Burn andPolitical Gabfest.[50]
| Year | Category | Article(s) | Author(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | General Excellence, Digital Media | N/A | N/A | [51] |
| 2011 | General Excellence, Digital Media | N/A | N/A | |
| 2013 | Columns and Commentary | It’s Not About the Law, Stupid", "The Supreme Court’s Dark Vision of Freedom", "Where Is The Liberal Outrage?" | Dahlia Lithwick | |
| 2016 | Podcasting | Slow Burn: "Deal or No Deal", "Tell-All", "Move On" | N/A | [52] |
On June 7, 2001,Slate published an article by Jay Forman of a practice of fisherman from an island in theFlorida Keys of fishing forrhesus monkeys.[53]The Wall Street Journal[54] andThe New York Times[53] found the claim to be a hoax after investigation. Later, Forman admitted to his editor,Jack Shafer, that his claim had been fabricated.[55]
Michael Kinsley wasSlate's founder and served as its firsteditor-in-chief from 1996 to 2002. He was followed byJacob Weisberg, who held the position from 2002 to 2008. Afterward,David Plotz became editor until July 2014, when he was replaced byJulia Turner.[21] After Turner resigned in 2019 to join theLos Angeles Times,Jared Hohlt became editor on April 1, 2019.[26]
FormerHuffPost editorHillary Frey was named as the magazine's new editor-in-chief in May 2022.[56][50]
Writing for Slate, a liberal news site, (...)
In theory, Slate is a quasi-liberal magazine about politics and culture that publishes opinion, interpretive journalism, essays, straight reporting, and more.
Slate was started in June 1996
Slate has planned to go paid since its inception in June 1996
Slate will introduce a monthly book review on Friday (...) Dan Kois, a senior editor in the culture department, will oversee the book review
Online magazine Slate recently created a dedicated sales force to capitalize on its traffic growth
Slate said it has gotten more than 9,000 members, which, it said, has exceeded expectations. Still, the numbers aren't eye-opening, representing an annual revenue intake of about $500,000
Slate is rolling out a paywall for international users. (...) The paywall will be metered, which means that you can read five stories every month for free. (...) Our U.S.-based sales team sells primarily to domestic advertisers, many of whom only want to reach a domestic audience.
Podcast host Mike Pesca and Slate have 'mutually agreed to part ways' (...) Pesca will take his podcast, 'The Gist,' to an independent platform.
News company Slate Group LLC sued Google LLC over antitrust violations in Manhattan federal court Tuesday
One of the youngest pan-Africa publications is celebrating its one-year anniversary. A French-language spinoff of popular Internet magazine Slate.com, Slate Afrique aims to bring quality news to African and foreign readers. (...) Slate Afrique is currently based in Paris
[One way to be a Slatey writer] is to make the contrarian case that all the common assumptions about a subject are simply and hopelessly wrong.
The hate-share headline is a devious twist on the time-honored "#slatepitch," an idea that sounds wrong or counterintuitive proposed as though it were the tightest logic ever.
'Is there a place for a contrarian take in a hyperpartisan world where there's an appalling president [Trump] (...)' (...) But he [Plotz], Weisberg, and current Slate writers are right that the old sensibility has lost some of its purchase
Slate once stood out as a home for contrarian takes and intellectual debate, but that distinction has faded in recent years, they [three anonymousSlate staffers] said.
Katie Robertson of the New York Times recently wrote about my former employer Slate (...) That's [Slate pitch] something Slate has sort of lost. But more than just Slate, I feel like it's been lost by the internet as a whole.
It now offers 25 podcasts, including "Slate Political Gabfest," which has been running for 13 years; "Trumpcast," which is co-hosted by Mr. Weisberg; and "Slow Burn," (...)
Slow Burn, a new limited series podcast from Slate, (...)
two got that prize [for general excellence in digital media] this year: (...) [Epicurious] and Slate, in the news and opinion category. (...) Slate and National Geographic had the most nominations, with four each.
Now behold the winners. (...) General Excellence, News & Opinion - Slate
Slate has named Hillary Frey, a former top editor at HuffPost, as its new editor in chief.
