Post buys online magazine Slate

The Post is the "best place to grow and develop" says Slate

Web magazine pioneer Slate is to be snapped up by the Washington Post, the two companies have announced.

The Post will buy the publication from current owner Microsoft, but details of the deal were not released.

Microsoft had determined Slate would be "better off at a media company than at their technology company", Slate said.

But the two will retain a "distribution relationship", with Slate's headlines appearing on the MSN.com homepage, editor Jacob Weisberg added.

Slate was founded in 1995 when previous editor Michael Kinsley approached Microsoft about a "journalistic experiment".

The service has remained popular - with six million unique users last month - and will now join the Post's new media and electronic publishing unit Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.