True/Slant to close this weekend

Posted by Emma Heald on July 30, 2010 at 10:37 AM

It appears that online-only news site True/Slant is to close this weekend, having been purchased by Forbes in late May. The idea of the site was to feature commentary, opinion and some original reporting from journalists who were given the opportunity to build up their online profile and establish their own audience. It was founded by Lewis Dvorkin in May 2009, and by May this year it had gathered more than 300 contributors.

Although neither Forbes nor Dvorkin have confirmed the closure of the site, many contributors have written farewell posts explaining that the site is "winding down operations at the end of July," as Neal Ungerleider put it. From the time of purchase by Forbes, it was not clear what plans the company had for T/S and whether it intended to keep all the writers. Dvorkin was made chief product officer at Forbes, suggesting a definite integration with the Forbes brand.

The New York Magazine suggested that Dvorkin had given up on T/S for the new Forbes position, but it seems that another venture involving T/S contributors is in the works: Ungerleider mentions in his final post that he hopes to "rejoin some former True/Slanters at a new - as of yet disclosed - project," and another contributor Rick Ungar said that he was barred from making announcements regarding the future but that he looks forward to "joining my new home sometime around the first of September and hope to be reunited with some good friends that I have made here at True/Slant."

It is not clear whether this new project will be within Forbes or not, but T/S writer Nancy Miller noted that "many of the basic ideas that drove the site will be re-invigorating Forbes, a venerable brand from another time."

Source: paidContent