Slate Expands Political Coverage

New Interactive Campaign Map, Poll Tracker and Women’s Political Blog Provide Users with More of Slate’s Fresh Perspective and Tools for 2008 Presidential Campaign

WASHINGTON, October 17, 2007—Slate, the daily online magazine, today unveiled new additions to its political coverage, including an interactive campaign map that plots campaign events across the country, a poll tracker and women’s political blog.  The new features will provide voters with even more of Slate’s fresh perspective during the 2008 presidential campaign, in addition to the magazine’s day-to-day political coverage from John Dickerson, Slate’s chief political correspondent, its “Political Futures” political betting survey, and the recently launched “Trailhead” campaign blog.

“Presidential election years are a big deal for us. This time, we’re deploying a set of addictive tools for people who really want to understand what’s going on in the campaign,” said Jacob Weisberg, Slate’s editor. “Our candidate map, poll tracker, and survey of the electronic betting markets are three features political junkies won’t be able to live without between now and November, 2008.” 

Slate’s newly launched interactive feature “Map the Candidates” (www.slate.com/id/2175817) allows users to chart candidate’s stops on the trail. Users can track where and when, for example, Barack Obama is campaigning in their home town, or how Rudy Giuliani’s campaigning efforts compare to John McCain’s. “Map the Candidates” also lets users “visit” each campaign stop with video coverage embedded throughout the map, when available.  Along with video, campaign events charted on the map will link to news stories summarizing the candidate’s stop.

“We love how the map organizes campaign coverage across the country,” said Weisberg. “Users can get just the big picture of where the campaign is physically, at any given moment. Or they can ‘zoom in’ and see the local reactions.”

Coming soon, “Map the Candidates” will be able to accommodate not only published news stories and video clips but also firsthand accounts of campaign events from users.

In addition to “Map the Candidates,” Slate is once again featuring its “Election Scorecard” poll tracker.  First launched during the 2006 midterm elections, the newly designed “Election Scorecard” gives the most comprehensive primary state breakdown of who’s ahead, who’s behind, and where the numbers are moving. Learn more at www.slate.com/id/2175496/.

Slate’s new political coverage also includes a women’s political blog. The “XX Factor” will bring a fresh, new voice to its 2008 presidential campaign coverage.  Penned by the women of Slate, the blog will discuss the latest in politics and other contemporary issues in an intimate and spontaneous style. 

“With the first major woman candidate running for president, it seemed like the right time to try this. We wondered what a female-only political roundtable would look like, and the ‘XX Factor’ allows us to experiment,” said Emily Bazelon, senior editor at Slate and a regular contributor to the “XX Factor.” Visit the blog at www.slate.com/xxfactor.

 “Map the Candidates,” “Election Scorecard,” and “XX Factor” will be updated regularly as events unfold during the presidential campaign.

About Slate
Slate Magazine is an award-winning Web site that offers fresh angles on stories in the news and innovative entertainment coverage. Slate recently launched Slate V, a video magazine produced in Slate’s signature witty and irreverent style (www.SlateV.com). Slate attracts over five million unique visitors each month and can be found on the Web at www.slate.com.

Slate is owned by Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the online subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

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