$19.95 or Bust
$19.95
or Bust
A final reminder: Effective
Monday, March 9, at around 5 p.m. PT,
Slate
becomes a
members-only site. Click here to sign up for a charter subscription. Each $19.95
one-year charter subscription comes with two free extra weeks, a free
Slate
umbrella or Microsoft ® Encarta ® Virtual Globe, and a
guarantee that the rate will never go up for as long as you renew. And of
course (for a modest $1.95 surcharge) our gratitude at having you along.
As of this writing, two
weeks after we began accepting credit cards, about 10,000 subscribers have
signed up. In a world where a formidable institution like the Wall Street Journal has 180,000-plus
paying online subscribers more than a year after it started charging, and where
Playboy's site is
considered a success at 22,000 subscribers, we're pretty pleased that 10,000
people signed up before they even had to. (Naturally, the meter on a
Slate
subscription doesn't start running until March 9, even if
you signed up early.) Our goal is to have 15,000 to 20,000 subscribers within
the first few months.
If you
haven't done so already, please sign up now.
(If you prefer the telephone, call [800] 706-3330. Operators are standing by.
Or they'd better be.)
Testimonials
Slate
's
decision to ask its readers to pay $19.95 a year (for a product valued by the
independent Microsoft Internet Content Laboratory at "$5,922.95 a year and not
a penny less") has produced a flood of comments, ranging from "Drop dead, you
greedbags" to "My husband reads
Slate
over my shoulder sometimes,
so here is $39.90--can I have two umbrellas?"
Remarkably, two members of the president's Cabinet have sent favorable comments
with their credit-card info. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright e-mailed
us:
Slate
is magnificent. Your "Summary Judgment" column is nothing
short of Talmudic in its commentary, and the ironic humor of "The Week/The
Spin" reminds me of the Jewish folk tales my grandparents used to recite to me
back in Czechoslovakia. I never could figure out why my grandparents knew so
many Jewish folk tales. Life is full of mysteries. Perhaps
Slate
will be able to solve some of them.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote:
I recall a Cabinet meeting
in which
Slate
was discussed extensively. The consensus among all
these establishment white men in dark suits was that you'll never make it. The
vice president said: "This Internet thing is just a fad. Give me paper and ink
any day." But I--a progressive black woman in a demure dashiki and sensible
pumps--insisted: "No, technology is vital to our future. It will liberate the
working man." Of course they wouldn't listen. Why am I always the lone
visionary? Perhaps I can find some soul mates in "The Fray."
Although
not officially a present or former Cabinet member, Monica Lewinsky has spent
time in the Cabinet room. She wrote us:
Like, thank God for
Slate
when I was hustled over to that no-work job at the
Pentagon. Staring at a computer screen all day, pretending to be busy--it was
Slate
or Solitaire, I tell you. But Solitaire's so f******
hard . Who made those rules, anyway? I'd far rather read those sexy
economics columns by Paul Krugman. If he doesn't get that Nobel pretty soon, he
should drop by, and I'll give him a consolation prize.
And Bill
Gates wrote:
Well, I wasn't going to
sign up. I've got some heavy expenses ahead of me. Twenty bucks can buy a good
two or three minutes of a Washington lawyer's time. But I was deeply impressed
by one of your "Diary" columns this week. I sobbed-- sobbed! --with shame as I
read about what our government is doing to punish innovation and creativity in
this country. And I loved the author's dig at Scott McNealy. We need to hear
more from the CEOs of large Seattle-based software companies--a group that has
remained silent for too long. By the way, send me that umbrella ASAP. I sure
could have used it in those hearings this week. When Orrin Hatch started
flapping his lips, the saliva really flew!
Wouldn't you like to join
this typical cross-section of
Slate
's readership? Sign up now,
and thanks again.
--Michael Kinsley
