How long before Slate is bigger than its parent company?
WASHINGTON, June 4, 2008—Washington Post Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Donald Graham today announced the creation of The Slate Group, a new online publishing entity that will oversee Slate Magazine, Slate V, TheRoot.com and The Big Money, a business site launching later this year.
The Slate Group’s mission is to develop and manage a family of web-only magazines. These may include additional spin-offs from Slate, new ventures and acquisitions.
Slate’s Editor Jacob Weisberg, who has been instrumental in launching new sites at The Post Company, becomes Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of The Slate Group, overseeing overall editorial and creative direction. Slate Publisher John Alderman will lead the business side of The Slate Group, adding the title of General Manager to his current responsibilities.
With Weisberg’s new leadership role, former Deputy Editor David Plotz becomes Editor of Slate Magazine, which The Washington Post Company purchased from Microsoft in 2005.
They’re saying it will “essentially be a start-up within an existing media brand.” Here’s hoping they do something better than TheRoot.com, which is consistently awful.