The Washington Post Co. Wednesday announced that it is launching a new unit to produce and run a family of Web-based magazines, Reuters reported.

According to a company statement, the Slate Group is planning to embark in other new media ventures, which it develops on its own or through acquisitions.

“The rationale is that you can build an audience beyond Slate's existing audience in certain vertical or demographic categories,” Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of Slate Group and was editor of Slate magazine, said in an interview Wednesday.

“I think it's sort of the logic by which Time magazine gave birth to Sport Illustrated and People, and it's the idea that you can incubate a magazine within another magazine,” Weisberg added.

David Plotz, former deputy editor, will be the editor of Slate magazine.

Weisberg did not comment on the amount of money the company puts into the Slate Group for general operations as well as acquisitions. “I think we have the potential to get (the Post) to look seriously at whatever we want to do, whether it's a new site we want to start from scratch, or something we want to buy,” he added.

Slate was originally owned by Microsoft Corp and was later sold to The Washington Post in 2005, Reuters reported.

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