France: Slate.fr co-founder Johan Hufnagel on the launch

Posted by Alisa Zykova on February 10, 2009 at 3:16 PM

Slate.fr, US online magazine Slate's French edition, finally saw the launch of its beta edition on Tuesday, after experiencing financial complications that pushed the date by a month in January. Co-founder Johan Hufnagel, former 20minutes.fr editor-in-chief, spoke to Le Figaro about the launch.

Slate.fr's goal is to follow in the footsteps of Slate.com by offering reporting that is both "ironic" and "precise". The site will not only feature political and economic stories but also "original subjects" such as articles about the Internet or cultural issues, according to Hufnagel.

The magazine's priority for the time being is to expand its audience base as well as to establish its personal rhythm, which is why the current site may not contain much graphic usage. But things may change in the near future thanks to a deal with photo agency Magnum (that is still in the works) as well as the production of original video content.

The outlet will hold some resemblance to other online-only publications such as Rue89 and Mediapart in that it would also center on engaging Internet users. However, Rue89 focuses more on hard news while Mediapart's economic model features a paid service, Hufnagel pointed out.

The Washington Post, which owns Slate, is seeking to test out the site's model and to look into its success rate outside of the US. However, prior to launching editions across other European destinations, Slate.fr must be put to test, Hufnagel said.

While it may seem risky to start a free initiative, Hufnagel mentioned that "pure players" are less affected. Prominent French telecommunications company Orange will be Slate.fr's source of revenue (as opposed to relying solely on advertisers) as it would be selling some of its content to the operator.

At the moment, there are only three paid positions, not counting the site's founders, but Slate.fr intends to boost the figure to ten by the end of 2009. Slate.fr staff includes former Le Monde journalists such as Eric Leser and Eric Le Boucher as well as Web-based figures such as Giuseppe di Martino, legal director of video-sharing site Dailymotion, and blogger Nicolas Vanbreemersch (aka Versac) from versac.net.

Jean-Marie Colombani, former Le Monde chief, is behind the project. Rumours emerged that Slate.fr was created to offer political views that opposed Rue89 or Mediapart, due to Colombani's connection to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. To this, Huffnagel replied that Slate.fr is an "independent" publication and that it would even go as far as critising Orange "if needed."

Slate.fr hopes to achieve up to 700,000 by the end of the year.

Source: Le Figaro through IFRA Executive News Service