The Washington Post will acquire the online opinion magazine Slate, officials at the paper announced Tuesday. This confirms industry speculation for the past year that MSN was attempting to divest itself from the content business. Slate would be one of three online media entities owned by the Post, the others being newsweek.com and the online version of the paper.

In comments to the media, it appeared as if the deal was no surprise to Slate editor Jacob Weisberg. "Microsoft has been a wonderful home for us since 1996. It's clear, though, that The Washington Post Company is the best place for Slate to continue to grow and develop," Weisberg said. Also announced in the statement was a deal to continue linking to Slate from the MSN home page.