Dan Check, Slate’s chief executive, acknowledged in an interview that there was work to be done on figuring out Slate’s editorial vision, but added: “We are definitely not in any kind of a crisis.”
“Right now we’re kind of taking a breath and taking a look at what it is that we’re doing — taking stock,” Mr. Check said.
Slate, which was started in 1996 by Microsoft, was one of the original digital-only media outlets. The publication quickly became known for smart analysis, interesting debate and top-tier journalistic talent. (Jacob Weisberg, a former Slate editor in chief, described Slate in 2013 as having “the brain of The New York Times and the body of BuzzFeed.”)
In 2004, Microsoft sold Slate to The Washington Post Company. After Jeff Bezos bought the firm’s flagship newspaper in 2013, the parent company was renamed Graham Holdings.
In recent years, Slate invested in starting podcasts and found success with some, including the acclaimed “Slow Burn.” And it remains known for its reporting on the Supreme Court, long an area of specialty. But it has struggled to otherwise break through in the conversation.
Confusion over exactly what Slate stands for has grown among staff, sometimes bleeding into public comments. An internal debate last year over race resulted in Mike Pesca, a well-known podcast host, leaving the company. Mr. Pesca, who is white, had argued with colleagues that there were certain contexts in which people who were not Black should be allowed to quote a racial slur. He was suspended in February last year and Slate started an investigation. A Slate spokeswoman said at the time that the suspension was not based around Mr. Pesca “making an isolated abstract argument in a Slack channel.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/business/media/slate-departures.html
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