Slate Magazine: Microsoft's Window on the World

By Jonathan Berohn

Want to keep up on all that's hip in the world (according to Microsoft)? Or all the news that you need to know (according to Microsoft)? Then Slate Magazine is the place you want to be. Ok-so that's not completely fair. Slate is its own business unit (and one of the rare non-porn content sites on the web that doesn't lose money), and its editorial content doesn't actually read like Microsoft press releases.

What you do get is the culture that shapes and drives the dotcom industry-interested in just about anything, with not a little irreverence thrown in. Slate covers everything from News and Politics to Arts and Life-they even find room for Sports and Travel and Food. If you're interested in something, Slate probably has an article about it.

Slate articles basically come in 2 flavors. First are the I-want-to-know-what's-going-on-but-only-have-2-minutes summaries. Slate gives daily summaries of both national and international news for the avid but hurried newshound. Today's' Papers covers the US, and International Papers covers, predictably, the international press. Read these two summaries and you'll be able to bluff your way through any water cooler conversation.

Slate's feature articles are what make Slate different and give it and edge that it can call its own. Basically, when you read a Slate piece, you not only find out what the author thinks about something, you also get to find out why the author thinks other people aren't saying the right things. Slate takes the dotcom wiseass skepticism and makes an art form out of it.

Some recent examples include a bashing of the New York Observer: John Updike, Anti-Semite? - Don't be ridiculous. And Times vs. Times traces inconsistencies and contradictions in the New York Times (it's much funnier and more interesting than it sounds-trust me).

All in all, Slate is great place to keep up to date on the major currents in both the news events of the day and the culture of the dotcommers. I wouldn't go deleting my New York Times bookmark just yet, but it certainly makes for an interesting supplement.