Microsoft’s Magazine Debuts Online

Slate, Microsoft Corp.’s online magazine of politics and culture, debuted Monday on the World Wide Web under the editorial guidance of former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley.

Slate joins a growing number of magazines on the Internet.

“The name? It means nothing, or practically nothing,” Kinsley wrote in an introductory column. “We chose it as an empty vessel into which we can pour meaning. We hope Slate will come to mean good, original journalism in this new medium.”

The weekly magazine will be free to Web browsers until Nov. 1, after which subscriptions will cost $19.95 a year, or $34.95 for two years. Members of the Microsoft Network will receive Slate free.

“We believe that expecting readers to share the cost, as they do in print, is the only way serious journalism on the web can be self-supporting,” Kinsley wrote.

The magazine is the latest move by Microsoft into providing online information. It already operates a news service, MSN News, is beginning a cable news channel with NBC in July, and is creating a regional arts and entertainment online services called Cityscape in major cities.

Microsoft stirred attention when it hired Kinsley - former editor of The New Republic and co-host of CNN’s “Crossfire” - to edit the magazine.

Slate is Microsoft’s highest-profile experiment in online media, where few people are making money. For Microsoft, the project is a way for it to derive recurring revenue from customers, not just on the few occasions they buy Microsoft programs.

Slate’s World Wide Web address is http://www.slate.com