Type of site News website Owner Salon Media Group Inc. Editor Andrew O'Hehir Founded 1995 | Available in English Created by David Talbot Key people Jordan Hoffner (CEO) | |
Stock price SLNM (OTCMKTS) US$ 0.16 0.00 (0.00%)27 Mar, 4:00 PM GMT-4 - Disclaimer Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States Profiles | ||
Salon is a American news and opinion website created by David Talbot in 1995 and owned by Salon Media Group (OTCQB: SLNM). It focuses on U.S. politics, culture, and current events from a politically progressive or left-wing perspective.
Contents
Salon's headquarters is located at 870 Market Street San Francisco, California. As of June 2013, its editor-in-chief is David Daley, after previous editor-in-chief Kerry Lauerman stepped down to partner with Larer Ventures on a new startup. Lauerman's predecessor Joan Walsh stepped down from that position in November 2010 but remained as editor at large.
Content and coverage
Salon covers a variety of topics. These include reviews and articles about books, films, and music; articles about "modern life", including friendships, human sexual behavior, and relationships; and reviews and articles about technology, with a particular focus on the free and open-source software (FOSS) movement.
According to the senior contributing writer for the American Journalism Review, Paul Farhi, Salon offers "provocative (if predictably liberal) political commentary and lots of sex".
In 2008, Salon launched the interactive initiative Open Salon, a social content site/blog network for its readers. Originally a curated site with some of its content being featured on Salon, it fell into editorial neglect and was closed in March 2015.
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.
Staff and contributors
Regular contributors include the political-opinion writers Amanda Marcotte, Scott Eric Kaufman, Heather Digby Parton, and Sean Illing, critic Andrew O'Hehir; pop-culture columnist Mary Elizabeth Williams.
David Talbot founded Salon and became its original editor-in-chief. He has served several stints as CEO, most recently replacing Richard Gingras who left to join Google as head of news products in July 2011. As of May, 2016, the company's CEO is Jordan Hoffner.
History
Salon was created by former San Francisco Examiner staff who had departed the newspaper seeking to explore the potential of the Web, especially in the wake of the newspaper strike that had occurred in November 1994. The magazine was founded by the Examiner's former arts and features editor David Talbot and launched in November 1995. In its early days readers noticed a specifically Northern California flavor. In an interview in 1996, Talbott agreed: "'We swim in the soup of San Francisco. There are a lot of odd fish we've plucked out of the Bay here, and it gives us some of that Left Coast, Weird Coast style.'" Time magazine named it one of the "Best Web Site of 1996".
Salon purchased the virtual community The WELL in April 1999, and made its initial public offering of Salon.com on the NASDAQ stock exchange on June 22 of that year.
Salon Premium, a pay-to-view (online) content subscription was introduced on April 25, 2001. The service signed over 130,000 subscribers and staved off discontinuation of services. However, less than two years later, in November 2002, the company announced it had accumulated cash and non-cash losses of $80 million, and 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 5¢ 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". On March 9, 2015, Salon announced it would be closing Open Salon after six years of hosting a community of writers and bloggers.
On June 10, 2011, Salon closed its online chat board Table Talk without stating an official reason for ending that section of the site.
On July 16, 2012, Salon announced that it will be featuring content from Mondoweiss.
In September 2012, Salon Media Group sold The WELL to the group of members.
Business model and operations
Salon has been unprofitable through its entire history. Since 2007, the company has been dependent on ongoing cash injections from board Chairman John Warnock and William Hambrecht, father of former Salon CEO Elizabeth Hambrecht. During the nine months ended December 31, 2012, these cash contributions amounted to $3.4 million, compared to revenue in the same period of $2.7 million.
Aspects of the Salon.com site offerings, ordered by advancing date: