Slate's prospects at Post

Financially, under Microsoft, the Slate online magazine has struggled to move past the break-even point. But the Washington Post Co., which earlier today announced a deal to buy Slate, could be in a better position to get it further into the black. Here's what Microsoft's Scott Moore, general manager of the MSN Network Experience, had to say on that subject when I spoke with him earlier today:

"MSN has evolved its content strategy to be more focused on the really large categories of information that people are interested in on the Web. Slate is obviously a bit more of a niche category. ... One of the reasons that we did think a sale would be good for Slate was that MSN is having tremendous growth in our online ad business, but Slate is a particular kind of sale that we're just not geared to excel at right now. We feel like there’s a lot of untapped potential, revenue-wise, that the Washington Post will be well-suited to take advantage of. ...

"If you thought of Slate as a magazine it might be similar to the New Yorker. That's a very different ad sale than say, Time magazine or Newsweek or People or some other mass-market publication. Our sales staff and our distribution means are really geared for that more mass market, both in terms of the audience generation and particularly in terms of ad sales."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Slate editor Jacob Weisberg told the Associated Press that the amount was "a very respectable, impressive price."