To hedge our bets, the early Slate also published a sibling print publication with the imaginative name of Slate on Paper. As Kinsley put it in September 1996, "Convinced as we are that the Web is the future, we're not convinced that the future has arrived. To remedy the future's tardiness, and to serve readers who can't access the Web, we're publishing a monthly, paper version of Slate."

"SOP," which quickly became a weekly, was available through the U.S. mail (a subscription cost $29.95 per year) or, for a brief time, in Starbucks stores throughout the United States. The coffee connection was a disaster—the magazines piled up unread and unwanted—and the experiment was brought to a speedy halt.

As readers became comfortable with the Web, the only remaining subscribers were Microsoft executives and staffers' relatives. When Slate on Paper was finally axed, one editor's 94-year-old grandmother had no regrets—by then she was happier to read it online.

(You can still create your own home version of Slate on Paper with "Build Your Own Slate," or sign up to receive a week's worth of stories via e-mail in our "What's in Slate" newsletter.)