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Troubled Salon Charging Readers

Plagued by sharply decreased ad revenues and rising editorial costs, from now on web-based Salon magazine will be available only through paid subscription.

And another web publication, Contentville, bit the dust last Friday. Steven Brill, publisher of Brill's Content magazine, closed its doors, leaving 15 employees jobless. Brill explained that his idea for the website "Just didn’t work."

Salon, the liberal webzine, infamous as an unabashed supporter of former President Clinton, wants readers to pay $30 for an annual subscription and $50 for a two-year subscription.

According to editor David Talbot, Salon needs to attract from 250 to 300 subscribers per day to meet its goal, but media analyst Michael A Kupinski of A.G. Edwards said reaching that goal would be very difficult.

Kupinski told the New York Times, "Finding subscription-based revenue is going to be a rough go."

"Some readers have implored Salon to reconsider this decision, pointing to the urgency of the times and the importance of Salon's coverage of world events," Talbot wrote in a message to his subscribers. "But this is precisely why we need our readers' support now. In recent days, Salon has committed substantial resources to covering the war between America and Islamic terrorism."

But Talbot denied that Salon is in serious trouble, saying that the magazine has attracted 15,500 subscribers since April and had obtained $3.5 million in new financing, adding, "We've got enough money to give us a cushion. There's no real crisis looming for Salon.

According to the New York Times, however, Salon’s stock, which was delisted by NASDAQ, closed at a mere .22 per share.