For as long as I can remember, people have gotten Salon and Slate confused. Maybe it was that they are somewhat similar sites — at least if you compare both to, say, EBay or Flickr — and both have five-letter names beginning with “S.” I don’t know why. But here it is, 12 years after I joined Salon’s merry startup crew and several months after I finally left the place, and I’m still finding myself referred to as “Slate’s Scott Rosenberg” (this by tech blogger Robert Scoble a little while back, since corrected) or “Slate co-founder Scott Rosenberg” (this by Cyberjournalist.net, published by the Online News Association, which, you know, really ought to know better).
I’m always grateful for the links, but before Google starts to associate my name too closely with that of a publication I’ve never been connected to, I think it’s time to stop this train. So, once and for all, let me provide a simple disambiguation guide.
- Salon is a fine publication that began publishing in November 1995. Slate is another fine publication that started about eight months later. Both were pioneers of the “webzine” format.
- Salon has always been an independent company. Slate was funded first by Microsoft and is now owned by the Washington Post.
- Salon was edited for many years by David Talbot and is now edited by Joan Walsh. Slate was edited for many years by Michael Kinsley and is now edited by Jacob Weisberg.
- Salon has plenty of great commentary but prides itself on its independent investigative reporting. Slate occasionally breaks stories but seems more editorially centered on digest-style features like “Today’s Papers” and explanatory commentary.
I wrote a huge number of articles for Salon over the years and also edited many more and helped run the publication and manage its site for many years. I have never, that I can recall, written for Slate.
There. I feel better now.
[tags]web magazines, salon, slate[/tags]
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