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(756 words; posted Friday, Sept. 20; to be composted Friday, Sept. 27)
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Fresh Blood
SLATE is pleased to announce that Alex Ross is leaving the New York Times and joining us as a culture critic. Alex, a cultural polymath, spent four years at the Times reviewing primarily classical music and writing occasionally on film. At SLATE, he will be contributing on a wide variety of topics. We're also happy to say that Cullen Murphy will be writing his "Good Word" column as a regular monthly feature. (Check out his first two efforts, on airline lingo and on the difference between "Talmudic" and "Jesuitical," in "The Compost." Cullen is managing editor of the Atlantic Monthly. And in yet another cultural acquisition, the distinguished critic Luc Sante will be writing monthly for SLATE on books, film, and art. Luc's byline has appeared in almost every leading print magazine you can think of, and we're delighted to introduce him to cyberspace.
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Wait, There's More
Nathan Myhrvold's essay on the mystifying economics of the Internet is the second of what will be regular monthly contributions by him on cyberspace and other topics. The only reason it's not officially a column is that we don't have a name for it yet. Suggestions are welcome (at letters@slate.com). It's already been suggested that we call the column, "And Now A Word From Our Sponsor," since Nathan happens to be a Microsoft group vice president and, in fact, our boss (or, literally, our boss' boss' boss). But he also is widely recognized as having one of the most interesting speculative minds around on science and related matters. We decided not to let the fact that we work for him deny us the opportunity to have him work for us (and our readers). When Bill Gates heard that SLATE had given Nathan a column, by the way, he seethed with jealousy. "Have him killed," was his immediate reaction. But SLATE's readers can rest reassured that we are not about to publish the musings of just any old Microsoft executive.
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Of Publishers, Paper, and Coffee
Rogers Weed recently joined SLATE as our publisher. Rogers is a longtime Microsoft employee (well, five years is a long time around here). His most recent job was Group Product Manager for Windows 95, which means he helped to launch that product you may have heard of. That accomplished, Rogers quit the company and spent a year traveling the world with his wife, also a Microsoftie. The opportunity to work with SLATE enticed Rogers back, and we're delighted to have him. The year off was a success, too: Rogers and his wife are expecting their first child in December. Rogers succeeds John Williams, SLATE's first publisher, who negotiated our distribution arrangement with Starbucks and enjoyed it so much that he went to work for them. And speaking of Starbucks, a list of the 400 or so Starbucks outlets that carry SLATE ON PAPER, our monthly highlights edition, is available here. The first issue of SLATE ON PAPER sold out quickly at many locations, leading to many tears in the espresso. But issue No. 2 goes to press today (Friday, Sept. 20) and should be available shortly. And of course, you can order a mail subscription. The cost is $29.95, and the phone number, 800-555-4995.
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Corrections
"Mother's Little Tax Break" incorrectly stated that payroll taxes consist of 7.65 percent from both employer and employee for Social Security, plus another 1.45 percent for Medicare. In fact, the 7.65 percent figure covers both programs. As is our policy, we both corrected the error in the article and record our abasement for posterity here. And some participants in "The Fray" have complained about a glitch involving dates (the calendar, not the fruit). It's been fixed.
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Consider Those Options, Damn It
Every weekday, SLATE offers a special edition reformatted for printing out on 8 1/2" x 11" paper and stored as a Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat file. Both versions can be downloaded from our "Consider Your Options" page. Or we can e-mail you the Microsoft Word edition automatically every Friday afternoon. This service is free, and you can sign up for it on the "Consider Your Options" page. The print-out edition is usually 25 to 30 pages long and includes almost all of SLATE in a compact and attractive two-column format. But even if you'd rather read SLATE online (and bless you for that!), you should sign up for our free e-mail announcement service--a weekly summary of what's in the current issue of SLATE. Sign-up is available on--where else?--the "Consider Your Options" page.
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SLATE to Be Profitable, Government Declares
(From a speech by FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, Sept. 18, to the Wall Street Journal Business and Technology Conference in Washington, D.C.)
"It took a century for the American telephone industry to go from zero to about $160 billion in revenues today. The competitive, unregulated personal-computer industry, by contrast, went from zero to nearly $100 billion in revenues in just 20 years. John Doerr of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins recently said in an online interview that the Internet market could easily triple that, and reach $300 billion. I imagine it will be around that time that SLATE starts making money."
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