Slate V launches

Slate.com has gone multimedia and unveiled a daily online video magazine. Slate V is based in the magazine's brand-new Venice offices and is headed up by Andy Bowers, the former National Public Radio producer and reporter who held together the Slate-NPR joint production for "Day to Day." From today's debut post:

Every weekday, we'll be posting new video, much of it produced exclusively for Slate V. Some segments will be familiar to regular readers, featuring writers you've known for years; others will be brand-new. They'll cover politics, the arts, science, business, and anything else that seems ripe for the Slate V treatment.

We also have a section called Did You See This?, where you'll find our picks for the best short videos from around the Web. Think of it as a way to procrastinate better.

You have to watch an Infinity commercial before you get to see your video. Bowers tells me the Abbot Kinney locale in Venice is not purely for his convenience: "Even though Slate’s main offices are in New York and Washington, we made the decision to base Slate V here in order to tap into all the great, and underused, video talent in town." Today's first entry, a video version of Slate's Dear Prudence advice column, features animation from Santa Monica-based VidLit. Slate blogger Mickey Kaus shares the offices.