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Salon is defined as a news and culture online, Web daily (Salon.com, 2005), which focuses on literary writing and public affairs (Conhaim, 2001). The main entry and navigation point to the company's Web sites is Salon's home page at www.salon.com. The website is made up a selection web pages, which cover a range of areas, including:
The company targets a young, affluent, educated audience, who are likely to make online purchases (salon.com, 2005). According to Salon founder, David Talbot, a major focus of the company is high quality writing, which is believed to have played a major role in Salon's success (Will, 1997).
Salon was founded in America in November 1995 by former San Francisco Examiner Arts editor, David Talbot (Needham, 2001). Salon progressively built a solid and loyal audience and in July, 1998 the website recorded 550,000 individual visits (Stern, 1998). Because of its steady and increasing audience, Salon began to attract major advertisers who wanted to appeal to a wealthy audience (Stern, 1998).
In 1999, Talbot's independent media empire changed its name from Salon Magazine to Salon.com (Houston, 2000). Later on, moving with the times, the company again changed its name by dropping the ‘dot com’ and adopting the name, Salon Media Group (Needham, 2001). After the site unveiled a new design in 2000, criticism from readers forced a re-structure of Salon’s online content by which it now falls into a dozen categories or ‘sites’ (Houston, 2000).
Although the company had become acknowledged as one of online journalism's most recognizable names, Salon began to suffer the effects of the dot.com recession that also affected other online Companies, which resulted from a rapid increase of competition (Needham, 2001). In June of 2000, Salon CEO Michael O'Donnell, announced that the company had cut its operating budget, for 2001, by about 20% (Houston, 2000). This included laying off thirteen people, 15% of them editorial staff (Houston, 2000). In 2001 Salon was in financial crisis and revealed that it did not have sufficient funds to carry it through to the end of the year (Needham, 2001). In an attempt to overcome this, Salon introduced a subscription service fee, predicted to generate up to $US1.8 million, if it succeeded in converting 2% of its readers to subscribers (Needham, 2001). Additionally, Salon began to charge $30 annually for access to a set of premium services. (Conhaim, 2001) seeking to raise working capital to sustain the business over until it reached cash-flow break-even in December of 2001 (Needham, 2001).
According to data, Salon Media Group Inc. announced that total revenues for the year of 2004 were $2.2 million, an increase of 69% from the previous year (PR Newswire, 2005). Records further indicate in increase in advertising revenues to $1.3 million from $0.6 million in the year before (PR Newswire, 2005).
Salon is also undergoing staff restructuring, as Founder David Talbot, relinquished his poistions of Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief, to other, current Salon employees (PR Newswire, 2005). However, Talbot will stay on as Chairman of the Board (PR Newswire, 2005).
Additionally, Salon is currently selling the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Links), which is an online, community-based, networking system (Weise, 2005). The online newspaper is selling in order to concentrate on advertising and subscriptions, which it was revealed, generate the majority of revenue (Weise, 2005).
In the future Salon aims to continue to provide intelligent, independent journalism, covering politics, culture and society, in innovative ways (Salon.com, 2005).
Salon currently obtains the large majority of its revenue from advertising and sponsorships, however Talbot plans to reduce the site's dependence on that income by increasing revenue through other means. Salon aims to achieve this through syndication and licensing of Salon content, as well as by providing personal ads and audio downloads (Houston, 2000).
For addditional information on Salon:
Similar Online Companies include:
Conhaim, W. W, (2001) “Salon develops premium service,�? NewsLink, Jul/Aug, vol. 18, iss. 4, pp.4
Christian, N. M., (2000) “Columbia Gives Awards For Journalism Done Online,�? New York Times. Dec 5, pp. B.5, ISBN 03624331.
Houston, F. (2000) “Get big, sell out, or die,�? Columbia Journalism Review, New York: Jul/Aug, vol.39, iss. 2, pp. 28, ISBN 0010194X.
Needham, K (2001). “Salon begging SEC for time to break even,�? Sydney Morning Herald, May 3, ISBN 0312-6315.
PR Newswire (2005) “Salon Reports Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2005 Results and Management Changes�?
Stern, G. M. (1998) “Salon,�? Link-Up, Nov/Dec, vol.15 iss.6, pp.6, ISBN 0739-988X
Weise, E. (2005) “Going to the Well once more: Salon puts longtime online community up for sale,�? USA Today, Aug 19, ISBN 0734-7456.
Will, E, (1997) Denver Post, Colorado: Nov 9, pp. F.01
Carlene Daley 23:15, 26 Oct 2005 (EST)
