RE: It's not often you get a guarantee AND an umbrella [Slate]

Dan Kohn (dan@teledesic.com)
Sun, 22 Feb 1998 02:10:03 -0800


First, I think Michael Kinsley was wrong to require subscriptions. He
should have waited at least another year for the web to grow and Slate's
name to get better known.

That said, I have already subscribed (and yes, I also get InfoBeat). I
find the concept absolutely laughable that InfoBeat's bland newswire
stories could be considered a substitute for the critical analysis and
superb summaries available in Today's Papers and Slate.

Many bits are free. But my time is valuable and I will happily pay for
services like Slate and Today's Papers which reduce the time I need to
spend to consume the worthwhile bits.

- dan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jay Thomas [SMTP:jpthomas@ix.netcom.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 20, 1998 7:54 AM
> To: FoRK@xent.ics.uci.edu
> Subject: Re: It's not often you get a guarantee AND an umbrella
> [Slate]
>
> Rohit Khare wrote:
> > - ---------------------------------------------------
> >
> > YOU'RE INVITED to join SLATE (tm) as a Charter Member -- RISK-FREE!
> >
> > * guarantee your low $19.95 rate for life...
>
> I got the same thing, and for some reason, it really annoyed me. I buy
> a TV, I pay for cable, I put up with adverts, but I won't pay extra to
> subscribe to Seinfeld or Friends. I buy a computer, I pay for internet
> access, I'll be damned if I pay $20/year to have someone email me a
> re-hash of todays newspaper headlines. I already get the news emailed
> to me from Infobeat http://www.infobeat.com/ (former Mercury news), a
> terrific morning news service. Todays papers was a nice service, I'll
> miss it (for a day), but it, and Slate in general, is not something I
> can't find elsewhere, gratis, on the net.
>
> Any bets on how long before Slate goes back to being free? I give it 3
> months.
> --
> Jay Thomas (w)617-576-4832 ICQ:5270335
> Network Manager (b)617-546-2444 AIM:jpthomas68
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> "Is it bad when you refer to all alcohol as pain-go-bye-bye juice?"
> -- Patton Oswalt on Conan O' Brien