Subject: SLATE News--Final Issue & Special Offer (Feb. 12, 1999)
Slate
From: SLATE Magazine <slate@slatemail.netresponse.com
Date: Feb 12, 1999 17:00:00 -0500
Subject: SLATE News--Final Issue & Special Offer
To: rixta@pobox.com
Dear Reader,
We thought you'd be interested in the news that we have decided, effective today, to make SLATE's Web site free again. At the same time, we will continue to offer our premium services: e-mail delivery, our print-out edition, The Fray, and The Compost (SLATE's archives) only to subscribers for $19.95 a year.
Now that you can get to SLATE's content free any day of the week, we will discontinue sending you this weekly e-mail. However, we do have a special offer for you:
Subscribe before March 18, 1999, and you'll get 18 months of SLATE premium services for the price of 12. We'll also send you your choice of either a deluxe SLATE umbrella or a beautiful wall-size National Geographic world map.
To subscribe visit https://www.slate.com/code/reg3/signup.asp
Sincerely,
Linda Leste, circulation manager
SLATE magazine
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Feb. 12, 1999
Dear Reader,
Effective today, all SLATE editorial content is free. In Readme, Michael Kinsley fields what are certain to be frequently asked questions about the
site's new policy:
Q. Well, duh! Everybody said you can't charge for content on the Internet. Information wants to be free! (Unless it's about sex or stocks.) But, oh no, you knew better. You'd show the world. You'd charge for news digests, for political analysis, for cultural discussions, for poetry f'r Chrissake. Don't you feel like jerks?
A. Not really. OK, maybe a bit. But look: This is terra incognita. We tried one thing, now we're trying something else, and we'll keep trying until we figure it out. Although we are owned by a rich company, becoming financially self-sustaining remains a crucial goal. And it's not as if anyone else has figured it out either.
Q. Do you promise this is the last big change in SLATE that you'll put us through?
A. Absolutely not. This is an adventure. Thanks for joining us on it. http://www.slate.com/redirect/announce.asp?gotoT=/Readme/99-02-13/Readme.asp
(...)
Sincerely,
Jodi Kantor
P.S. You don't have to keep this letter to yourself. If you have friends (or, for that matter, enemies) who might be interested in SLATE, please forward this announcement to them. Thanks.
Quality Assurance Code
For SLATE Use Only: 667397
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