Slate Lays Off Senior Staffers in Face of Financial Woes

Image via WikipediaWashington Post Co.-owned Webzine Slate.com has hit a financial rough patch that has caused it to cut loose contractors and four full-time staffers, including long-time media writer Jack Shafer and "Chatterbox" columnist Timothy Noah, AdWeek reports.

With Slate's 2011 2Q earnings down 13 percent compared to last year, the Webzine dropped media reporting maven Shafer, an original member of Editor Michael Kinsley's team that debuted Slate in 1996. The 59-year-old Kalamazoo, Michigan, native is the principal reason the devoted "TUOL" staff has visited Slate.com over the years.

Shafer and Noah will continue to contribute to the site. The "small reduction in full-time staff," according to Slate Editor David Plotz, also includes foreign editor June Thomas and associate editor Juliet Lapidos.

Plagiarist Posner Punted from 'Daily Beast'

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Author/attorney Gerald Posner, the chief investigative reporter for Tina Brown's year-old Internet news site The Daily Beast, has quit the online publication amid charges of plagiarism.

According to a report in today's Miami Herald, Posner blogged and tweeted his resignation from The Daily Beast after a discussion with Managing Editor Edward Felsenthal concerning an internal investigation of alleged plagiarism by Posner, the author of 11 books, including Miami Babylon. The internal probe was prompted by initial accounts by Slate.com's Jack Shafer that revealed a purported instance of Posner filching five sentences from a Miami Herald article.  A follow-up piece by Shafter alleged multiple instances of Posner plagiarizing works from The Miami Herald, Texas Lawyer, and a journalism blog devoted to healthcare issues.

Reportedly, Posner attributed cribbing others' writings to his "master electronic files system" and the "warp speed of the Net." Way to step up and accept responsibility for one's actions.