Slate, a unit of The Washington Post Company, characterized the move as a business decision that would reduce costs while preserving editorial content. Double X was an expansion of Slate’s XX Factor blog. It was started in May as an online magazine about women, covering politics, culture, parenting, work-life balance and other subjects.

It’s a shame — the marketplace is not exactly flooded with intelligent, newsy websites devoted to women — if not a total surprise. Unlike Jezebel, which was a roaring success when it launched in Spring of ’07 (just in time to make the most of Hillary Clinton campaign for the White House), Double X never seemed to quite take hold in the blogosphere. Something that always puzzled considering they had the backing of Slate and what appeared to be a female audience hungry for fare that wasn’t limited to the pages of fashion magazines. However, launching a website is no easy feat (to say the least), and the timing may have been against Double X, in so far as that by the time they arrived on the scene the revelation of Hillary Clinton followed by Sarah Palin had been soundly trumped by the economy (for the time being). It should be noted, however, that they can still be found here.

Related:
Rachel Sklar: Watchdog of the Underrated Woman [GELF]
Glynnis MacNicol: Miss En Abyme [GELF]
Jessica Grose: Peggy Olson’s Heiress [GELF]
Anna Holmes: Leader of the Jezzies [GELF]
Caroline McCarthy: Working The Social Media Beat [GELF]
Panel Nerds: Women of the Media World Unite and Take Over [Mediaite]

>>>NEXT: Transcript of the panel.