SALON

Tuesday, Oct 25, 2005 12:00 AM UTC

Introducing Salon’s cheeky new women’s blog

By

Topics: Broadsheet, Love and Sex,

Broadsheet started, as many things at Salon do, over e-mail. A member of the staff would pick up on a piece of news about women that was funny or horrifying or exciting but was not getting many column inches in the rest of the press. Sometimes those e-mails turned into stories, but often the item would be small enough that it wouldn’t merit its own feature at Salon, either. Still, the staff comments — hilarious, angry, shocked, pleased — would zing back and forth by e-mail chain. Without realizing it, we’d begun our own internal blog, with a circulation of about a dozen people, that paid attention to the newsworthy triumphs and travails of what we used to call the fairer sex.

So here we are, carving out a new niche in our ever-evolving publication. Our aim is to cast a spotlight on news that puts women in the center, because while we’ve come a long way, a quick scan of bylines and stories in most major newspapers will show you that women are still not always being seen — or read. Broadsheet will be taking the ladies seriously, whether that means tracking news about how our rights are holding up, how well we’re representing ourselves politically, or how the advertising world has decided to address us, what kinds of health advances are ahead of us — all the news of our (usually) two-steps-forward, one-step-back march to equality. Broadsheet is about contradictions — the fact that opinion and editorial pages are dominated by men, alongside the fact that the most powerful editorial section of all, that of the New York Times, is run by a woman, Gail Collins. That’s the Broadsheet paradox: We’ve got problems, we’ve got some power, we’ll talk about both.

We’ll also have celebrity dish and possibly fashion news. And jokes. Women are funny.

Why “Broadsheet”? For one thing, we like the word “broad,” which for us conjures up images of Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson, ferociously pounding out copy on deadline in “His Girl Friday,” her tailored suit wrinkle-free and sexy. But the term also applies to our content. The issues we’ll tackle are limitless, really, given the fact that our subject includes half the world’s population. Katie Holmes’ pregnancy, Harriet Miers’ Supreme Court nomination, the FDA’s stalling over Plan B — we’ve got something to say about all of it. Our goal is to be opinionated about topics that affect women, but also a filter by which we can look at the news from a (mostly) female point of view.

Which brings us to your inevitable question: What about men? Where do they fit in here? Broadsheet believes that any discussion of “women’s issues” must include men — hey, they still hold most of the power in the world, and, well, almost all of us live with them, work with them, love them. So expect plenty of editorial input from our male colleagues, especially Farhad Manjoo, who has been one of the biggest boosters of Broadsheet since the beginning. Men are crucial to any discussion and we want to bring them into the conversations we’ll be having every day. And if Salon’s history of spirited debate between readers and editors is any indication, we’re sure you guys will show up in our comments area too and tell us what you think.

Welcome, everyone, to this new corner of Salon.

More the editors.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • A missing poster hangs on a tree outside the Cleveland home of Amanda Berry Wednesday. Berry and two other women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, made a daring escape this week after being held captive for more than a decade.
    Credit: AP/Tony Dejak

  • Elvis Rafael Rodriguez and Emir Yasser Yeje offer their best impression of  Eric B. & Rakim. On Thursday, New York prosecutors identified the pair as members of an international gang that robbed $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking into a database of prepaid debit cards and draining ATM machines around the world.
    Credit: AP

  • New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walks to a podium during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Technology Enhanced Accelerated Learning Center at Essex County Newark Tech in Newark, N.J., Tuesday. Christie made less flattering headlines this week after undergoing a secret stomach surgery to curb his weight.
    Credit: AP/Julio Cortez

  • Workers stand outside the Tung Hai Sweater Ltd. factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday after a fire broke out in its 11-story building. Eight people were killed in the blaze.
    Credit: AP/Ismail Ferdous

  • Workers rescue a woman trapped for 17 days in the rubble of a garment factory building in Saver, Bangladesh, Friday. The building's collapse was the worst industrial disaster in the country's history, killing more than 1,000 people.
    Credit: AP

  • Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford gives his victory speech Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., after winning back his old congressional seat in the state's first district.
    Credit: AP/Rainier Ehrhardt

  • Jodi Arias reacts in Maricopa Country Superior Court Wednesday after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander. Arias has subsequently said she wants the death penalty, claiming she'd "prefer to die sooner than later."
    Credit: AP/The Arizona Republic/Rob Schumacher

  • Ariel Castro stands for his mug shot Thursday at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, where he is being held on $8 million bail. The former bus driver is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a period of 10 years.
    Credit: AP/Cuyahoga County

  • Charles Ramsey addresses the media Monday after helping rescue three women held captive in Cleveland for more than a decade. Ramsey's hero portraiture has been complicated by revelations of his own domestic violence record.
    Credit: AP/The Plain Dealer/Scott Shaw

  • Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The military branch was rocked this week after its chief sexual assault prevention officer was charged with sexual battery.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 156 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations