Marxists know that technological changes are often a mask for power grabs by the ruling class. So it is with Slate's new Table of Contents. Beneath its attractive facade, two things seem to be going on:

1) The Revenge of "Slow Slate": Slate has lots of very good writers and editors turning out articles--book reviews, essays, arguments-- that would fit in comfortably at a print magazine--say, The New York Times Magazine or The New Yorker or New Republic. These articles take a lot of effort to produce--but then they typically just sit there. They aren't continually updated. The hits, and therefore the ad dollars, and eventually, perhaps, the attention and glory seem to go increasingly to constantly-altered bloggy features that can attract 5 or 6 visits a day from a single reader--what has been called Fast Slate (Today's Paper's, XX factor, Trailhead, etc.).

What's old fashioned classy magaziney Slate to do? Redesign the Table of Contents! Give the slow-cooked articles prominence. Exile the blogs to a separate table of contents that only appears about one of every 4 times you load the page. Keep the blogs out of the little topical pull-down tabs at the top that theoretically guide readers to "politics" or "arts" or "business." You might think readers interested in politics would click on the "politics" tab and find Trailhead, Slate's blog devoted entirely to politics. You would be wrong. Trailhead, you're a blog--get back in your own neighborhood! Blogs have been given a special separate-but-equal tab of their own. Meanwhile, along the left margin, the permanent links for blogs have been demoted to down below a phone book like directory of every Slow Slate writer who ever lived,.

It's odd that just as every other publication is attempting to merge their conventional and bloggy content, Web pioneer Slate is attempting to separate them and privilege the former. Brilliant contrarian play or Thermidorian last gasp of the Magaziners? You make the call!

2) All Power to the Central Committee: The old T of C showed all Slate articles and blogs in a big first-come, first-posted list that got pushed down the page as the week went by. This list used to appear on the first screen. Then got moved down, but the first screen still included some headlines (e.g., for various blogs, including kausfiles, and Explainer, and Today's Paper's) written by a variety of authors and editors. Now the enlarged headline area--known internally as TAP--takes up pretty much the entire first screen and almost exclusively highlights articles chosen by a small, obscure Slate committee--let's call it the Tapitburo.

This system enables Slate to give great play to more of the articles that are deemed most promotable--but it means that if your article isn't selected by the Tapitburo, it's not so easily found. Which in turn creates a huge incentive to write things that will please the members of the Tapitburo, who now have the power to promote what you've written or leave it exiled in semi-obscurity--not to mention an incentive to buy them expensive chocolates on their birthdays and be very nice to them at the office Christmas party (assuming that Slow Slate and Fast Slate won't be required to hold separate events).

The incentive to please this new ruling class is especially strong for blogs, which need the all-powerful Tapitburo to rescue them from the special blog .. area and bring them into the light.

I hope I don't sound bitter! I'm not bitter! Why would I be bitter? There's a recession on. Nobody's hiring. The bosses are in the saddle. Plus, as my friend S points out, "You sit in your bathrobe and write and they pay you." Bloggers who get paid shouldn't complain.

We're happy here in our blog ghetto. Really we are. Nice and breezy in the back of the bus! But remember, you don't have to visit the Slate table of contents at all to get kausfiles. Just type in http://www.kausfiles.com/. It will take you to the kausfiles blog. Wherever it is. Bypass the ruling class! Let the bosses take the losses! ..