Salon.com has received a $2.5 million cash infusion from former Adobe CEO John Warnock. The online magazine announced it had lost $5.5 million in the last reported fiscal quarter due to declining ad sales. Apple was one of the initial investors in Salon.com.
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I'm glad that someone is helping underwrite Salon. It really is a cool place, with good content. I hope it works its way through... I would like to see this become the Time of the web, so to speak.
Good luck, Salon.
jrbd
Heh, his own company could have used his $2.5 mil to be able to exhibit at trade shows...
I don't actually think that what you said is entirely true... Under today's mode of operating for most dot-coms, yes, there simply isn't a way to break even...
I think that is the problem, though... Most dot-coms still are operating with an enormous amount of baggages... They remember the days when they could burn a cool million on McGuire Furniture, or PowerMac G4 Cubes. And, unfortunately, a lot of this lax financial sense has been carried over to today.
I'd like to see them actually have to conserve more where they can... I think, then, they would be much closer to, and possibly then break even.
jrbd
they got my dollars, i am a premium services subscriber to Salon.com... and if you are not a rabid, drooling, rightwing nutcase you'll become a premium services subscriber to Salon, too...
While I'm not an avid reader of Salon.com and I haven't visited the site much, I've seen some things that put a bad taste in my mouth. Previously I've only followed tech links from MacNN and such to Salon.com pages and I've found that often their articles seem based on rumors or an overwhelming bias towards a certain side of the article. Now while I just now visited the home page, and it seems like they have a nice amount of good information on non-tech stuff, their tech section just seemed to disappoint me. That's my two cents, feel free to flame me now.
Yes, Salon does dabble in Tech news, but it's by no means their strong suit. Politics, literature, A&E fit them best. I must admit though, I'd ilke see more updates in their *ahem* s** section. :)
I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I'm going to buy a premium subscription. It is my impression that Salon's content has veered in a significantly trashier direction over the past year or so. They still have some great articles from time to time, but a lot of what they do also seems like it's just for shock value. If they could get back to more deep and engaging articles, I wouldn't mind paying to subscribe.
I'm not opposed to the idea of paying for online content but Salon's price is ridiculous. It's more than most print magazines. Part of the point of new technology is lower costs. I hate it when I see people try to sell a new solution for as much as the old one.
Like mp3s, they aren't printing the cover, they don't have to take an up front risk on how many they produce and they are lower sound quality. Yet they try to sell them for $2-3 a song. Or DIVX when the pay per view was the same as renting from Blockbuster.
I expect the sites to end up joining each other in various networks that share a subscription. For example, you pay $x a month to foo.com and you get Salon.com, Fool.com, macnn.com and x others. hopefully non-exclusive deals so you can get the sites you want through whichever provider has the list that matches what you're looking for.
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The web would be a dark place without Salon. I like the online rag so much I signed up for their "Premium" subscription. Not because it offers all that much, but because there comes a time when you have to put your money where your mouth is. Unless of course you'd like to see them go under. I just don't see how it's possible for ad sales to support web sites anymore. Salon's direction, like it or not, is probably where we're all going.