Slate editor Jacob Weisberg, who, along with every oxygen-breathing life form in the media biz apart from the sweet-faced Bengali kid at Grand Central Station's Hudson News, has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Jim Kelly at Time*, certainly knows new technologies: his web-based magazine "plans to begin "textcasts" of stories delivered directly to the ever-popular portable media player. Users can receive the full text of its daily "Today's Papers" feature, which aggregates the days news. The downloaded story will appear in the iPod's display window. Slate will deliver the text attached to 15-minute silent audio file."
Sources tell AdWeek that Slate is also working on technology that would allow readers to carry around Slate content on a portable, print-based medium that is lightweight, inexpensive, and easily disposable. No word yet on when these so-called "printcasts" might be available.
Lexus Sponsors Slate 'Textcast' on iPod [AdWeek]
*The sweet-faced Bengali kid is rumored to be the next EIC at Stuff.
