Spinoffs are well known in television. Sometimes they work: The Jeffersons spun off from All in the Family and ran for 10 years. Sometimes they don't: Look at Joey. (You didn't while it was on.) Slate, the Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive's wonky, contrarian Web site of politics and pop culture, isn't a sitcom—if it were, Christopher Hitchens would surely be Archie Bunker—but it's launching a spinoff of its own today with The Big Money, a business site.

This is the first new site from The Slate Group, which was created in June and is overseen by Jacob Weisberg, the former editor of Slate. It encompasses the flagship site (which, amazingly, is on its second owner, third editor, and fourth presidential election since it was founded by Michael Kinsley for Microsoft in 1996), the video site  read more »

"I don't know anything about what's happening at my magazine!" exclaimed Domino editor in chief Deborah Needleman Wednesday night at a party she was hosting for the magazine's fashion issue at socialite and contributing editor Alison Sarofim's West Village townhouse.

Ah, Fashion Week. "I'm hoping it will still be there next week," she sighed.

Ms. Needleman called Ms. Sarofim's house "the prettiest house I know. I can't figure out how to top it." Her own Tribeca loft, which she shares with hubby Jacob Weisberg of Slate, has been featured in New York magazine.  read more »

Surprisingly, no one caught wind of this early, but Slate editor Jacob Weisberg has apparently signed on to write a biweekly column for Newsweek. Like Mr. Weisberg's long-running on-again-off-again Slate column—which last appeared in January, and has not been a regular feature since April 2007—this new one will be called The Big Idea, and it will run in Newsweek and Slate simultaneously.

The first edition of the column appears as part of this week's special issue on the DNC, along with pieces by Princeton professor Sean Wilentz and Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass, both of whom will, according to Jon Meacham's editor's note, contribute to Newsweek occasionally.  read more »

The Slate family is getting bigger, and consquently, a restructuring is in order! David Plotz, longtime deputy for the thinky, contrarian Web magazine, is becoming the new chief editor of the site. He'll be the third editor of the 12-year-old site, succeeding Jacob Weisberg who succeeded Michael Kinsley. Weisberg will now oversee all the Slate Web sites in a role not dissimilar to Jim Kelly's current role at Time Life.

"I’ll be in charge of what we do: who works for us, who writes for us, how we cover it," said Mr. Plotz to Media Mob today.  read more »

But Cole is doing himself a disservice by getting so worked up about Christopher Hitchens's quotation of his statements about Iran on a listserv, a statement Cole thought to be private. Lately Cole has published his petulant emails to Jacob Weisberg, the editor of Slate (who brushed him off coolly and correctly). One claim Cole makes is that he was going to publish the statement himself, and Hitchens scooped him, and illegally and unethically deprived him of the value of his work. Yes, Hitchens scooped him, but I don't buy all the violations. I give Cole great credit for the lines that Hitchens printed (and attacked). I will look forward to what Cole has to say at greater length on the question. I think a lot more people will now be tuned to Cole, a good thing indeed. And how much money was he really going to make off these ideas? He says the listserv was a "small" group. How small? And what has Cole done about the real violation, the colleague who emailed his stuff to Hitchens. Give us some facts.

If an idea is so important to you, any journalist will tell you—keep it close to the vest. That's the bottom line here: Cole has a lot to learn more about journalism.

"I shouldn't say anything about it," Weisberg said by phone. "I love my job and am happy where I am."

--Gabriel Sherman