XX Factor, Slate's female-centric blog, soon to become a Web-a-zine, will not be anything like Nick Denton's Jezebel, Slate editor Jacob Weisberg tells Media Bistro's Fishbowl today. "If you look at XX Factor and you look at Jezebel, you can see they're very different," he said. Is it just us, or can anyone else actually hear in his voice that he thinks XX will be "better" and by better he means more high-minded? Like he's fresh out of an editorial meeting in which the words, or some approximation of the words, "There's no reason the Web has to be glib — it can be thoughtful and smart" have been uttered? It might be us. But there are two signs that indicate that Double X is positioning itself as the earnest, bookish antidote to Jezebel, the Elizabeth to its Jessica, if you will:

Sign No. 1 They're going to keep calling it Double X. Which is, you know, because of the chromosome thing. Clever, but if you'll notice, you don't laugh. There will be no laughing on this site, we suspect, though sometimes readers will occasionally be allowed a rueful, amused chuckle.

Sign No. 2 : They have hired Megan O'Rourke (Slate contributor, composer of poems), Hanna Rosin (New Republic, Washington Post, David Plotz's wife), and Emily Bazelton, author of this book review to co-edit it.

There you have it: Jezebel with glasses.

Slate EIC Weisberg Names Trinity to Lead Ladyblog Double X [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]