Former New York Observer editors Tom McGeveran and Josh Benson launched their online magazine in beta form today. It seems to have lived up to its advance billing as a sort of Politico-meets-Salon-meets-Observer.

Daily Intel went inside the beta site and came out with the screenshot above, and the observation that the stories are nice and long ("blog posts these are not"). The site's tagline promises "this is how New York works," and, according to Daily Intel, Capital delivers. Though the lead item is about Wire creator David Simon's media-crit windbaggery — ugh — the design looks reasonably smart and attractive. Let's just hope it stays that way when Capital adds the new verticals it's planning so readers can cope with the overwhelming flood of content.