Salon.com, part of
Salon Media
Group ( ), often just called
Salon, is an online
magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon
was founded by
David Talbot as one of
the internet's first online publications.
American liberal politics is its major
focus, but it covers a range of issues. Reviews and articles about
music, books and films are also a prominent feature of the site.
Salon's
headquarters are located west of downtown San Francisco,
California
. Its current editor-in-chief is
Joan Walsh.
Content and coverage
Salon magazine covers a variety of topics. Liberal Politics is a
major focus. It has reviews and articles about
music,
books, and
films. It also has articles about "modern life",
including relationships, friendships and
sex. It covers
technology, with a particular focus on the
free software/
open source movement.
Salon has always been an interactive site to some degree. The
"
salon" concept is played out in
two discussion board communities open exclusively to online
subscribers, Salon Table Talk and
The WELL, and since 2005, comments
on editorial stories open to all readers.
Responding to the question "how far do you go with the tabloid
sensibility to get readers?", former Salon.com editor-in-chief
David Talbot said:
Is Salon more tabloid-like?
Yeah, we've made no secret of that.
I've said all along that our formula here is that we're
a smart tabloid.
If by tabloid what you mean is you're trying to reach a
popular audience, trying to write topics that are viscerally
important to a readership, whether it's the story about the mother
in Houston who drowned her five children or the story on the
missing intern in Washington, Chandra
Levy.
Key people
Regular contributors include the political writers
Glenn Greenwald and
Mike Madden; investigative reporter Mark
Benjamin; critics Laura Miller,
Heather Havrilesky, Stephanie Zacharek
and Andrew O'Hehir; columnist Garrison Keillor; aviation columnist
Patrick Smith, culture
critic
Camille Paglia; feminist
writer Rebecca Traister; advice columnist
Cary Tennis, and cartoonists
Tom Tomorrow, author of
This Modern World;
Ruben Bolling, author of
Tom the Dancing Bug,
Keith Knight, author of
The K Chronicles, and
Carol Lay, author of
WayLay."
David Talbot was the founder and
original editor-in-chief.
Richard
Gingras is the
CEO. Joan
Walsh is the editor-in-chief.
Norman
Blashka is the CFO and VP of Operations. Kerry Lauerman is
Salon's new projects editor; Mark Schone is Salon's executive news
editor; Jeanne Carstensen is managing editor.
Gail Williams manages the
The WELL.
History
Salon was first published in 1995.
In April 1999, Salon purchased the
virtual community The WELL. On
June 22,
1999, Salon.com made an
initial public offering on
the
NASDAQ stock exchange.
On
April 25,
2001,
Salon launched
Salon Premium, a pay-to-view (online)
content subscription. Salon Premium signed over 130,000 subscribers
and staved off discontinuation of services.
On
November 13,
2002, the company announced it had accumulated cash and
non-cash losses of $80 million. By February 2003 it was having
difficulty paying its rent, and made an appeal for donations to
keep the company running.
On
October 9,
2003,
Michael O'Donnell, the
chief
executive and president of Salon Media Group, said he was
leaving the company after seven years because it was "time for a
change." When he left, Salon.com had accrued $83.6 million in
losses since its inception, and its stock traded for 5ยข on the
OTC Bulletin Board. David Talbot,
Salon's chairman and editor-in-chief at the time, became the new
chief executive. Elizabeth "Betsy" Hambrecht, then Salon's
chief financial officer, became the
president.
In July 2008, Salon launched Open Salon, a "social content site"
and "curated blog network". It was nominated for a 2009 National
Magazine Award. in the category "best interactive feature."
Business model and operations
Aspects of the Salon.com site offerings, ordered by advancing date:
- Free content, around 15 new articles posted per-day, revenues
wholly derived from in-page advertisements.
- Per-day new content was reduced for a time.
- Salon Premium subscription. Approximately 20% of new content
made available to subscribers only. Other subscription benefits
included free magazines and ad-free viewing. Larger, more
conspicuous ad units introduced for non-subscribers.
- A hybrid subscription model. Readers now can read content by
viewing a 15-second full screen advertisement to earn a "day pass"
or gain access by subscribing to Salon Premium.
Books published
- Peri, Camille (editor), Moses, Kate (editor). Mothers Who
Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood (2000). ISBN
0-671-77468-9
- Miller, Laura (editor). The Salon.Com Reader's Guide to
Contemporary Authors (2000). ISBN 0-14-028088-X
- George, Don (editor). Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of
Adventures and Romance (2001). ISBN 0333905024
- Sweeney, Jennifer Foote (editor). Life As We Know It: A
Collection of Personal Essays from Salon.com (2003). ISBN
978-0743476867
- Leibovich, Lori (editor). Maybe Baby: 28 Writers Tell the
Truth About Skepticism, Infertility, Baby Lust, Childlessness,
Ambivalence, and How They Made the Biggest Decision of Their
Lives (2006). ISBN 0-06-073781-6
- Tennis, Cary. Since you asked (2007). ISBN
978-0979327001
Tracy Quan's novels
Diary of a
Manhattan Call Girl and
Diary of a Married Call Girl: A
Nancy Chan Novel continue the story begun in the Salon series
Nancy Chan: Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl.
References
- Talbot interview
-
http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2008/07/24/welcome_to_our_public_beta
-
http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2009/03/18/congratulations_youve_just_been_nominated
External links
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