It is with some irony that on the day called Cyber Monday, where people online do some significant buying, that Salon.com is in the news. The financial pressures upon Salon.com may force a media merger or an outright acquisition:
"... 15-year-old Salon has been unable to stanch its red ink. Salon Media Group Inc. has racked up net losses of more than $15 million in the past five years, with nearly a third of that coming in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010.
Richard Gingras, Salon's chief executive, said the site has made "substantial progress," noting that in the first half of the current fiscal year it cut operating losses almost in half to $1.2 million. He said it is investing more in lifestyle content and less in its core areas of politics and news, as part of an effort to expand its audience and boost ad revenue. But Salon might need to become part of a stable of media properties to stem its losses, he said."
While this is interesting from a media and a marketing perspective, this news item is significant for the regular visitors and contributors of this site, Open.Salon.com. The question becomes "what will happen to this website?".
As many experienced internet users know, change can happen quickly. Often internet sites are functioning at the beginning of one month and become part of online history at the end of that same month.
No one seems to know the fate of this site - and, if they do, the news has not been released to the media. For us who frequent this small section of the Information Highway, it may be prudent to make back-up copies of all important work that has been submitted here. Further, it may be wise to have some actual email addresses of friends.
As Yoda said, "Impossible to see the future is". And Yoda did not have financial red ink.
Catherine Forsythe
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Erica K
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Stephanie Russell-Kraft
Jeremiah Horrigan
Salon.com
Comments
Second, I'm not really that surprised that Salon.com is on the "auction block". Although I'm a bit surprised that the operating losses are so small given the context of the money that revolves around and through internet media today (I thought that rather than 8 digits it might be 9--a few million here, a few million there and pretty soon you're talking about real money)
I love this place. There is no other close on the 'net.
I do not like even the thoughts here I have.
Thanks for this Catherine..
rated with hugs
I don't even know where to look for their personal email addresses.
rated with love
Then, come what may, your precious writings will be protected.
But I still can't understand how a WEBSITE with advertising revenue can bleed such ink!
xenonlit.wordpress.com
Ludmillia Jones at Facebook
xenonlit at Twitter
Owner of Club ZUZU
Need technical help or I am SOL if this goes off line. Thanks!
but better save than sorry.
Awaiting instructions.
But yeah, fore-warned is fore-armed.
Seriously...thanks for the heads up on backing up our files.
You never know.
R
I have a question. Is an article about backing up Open Salon postings necessary? Let me know if it is and I will try to put some suggestions together... or someone can volunteer to do it. Please let me know if it is necessary. Thanks!
Reason I do it that way is two-fold. One, I'm an inveterate tinkerer (NOT Tink). I write the stuff in Open Office but fiddle with it after I create a post. Second, I want to keep the comments people make.
I'd miss you all so much!!
-R-
However, we must remember what Mark Twain once said:
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
and also what Yogi Berra mentioned:
"It ain't over till it's over."
Salon is selling at ten cents a share OTC...I said it a few weeks ago...buy...xox
I don't judge you-- you don't need to judge those who don't want to expose their face and name to the whole world.
"I forewarned bloggers about this. I told Cartouche on skype in September that OS wouldn't be here at Christmas time. "
... That is why he spent the month of October 2010 and half of November 2010 uploading 30 posts a day to "his archive" at Open Salon.
That makes sense...
And like Fusun said... I want to backup the posts with the images and the comments.. how can I don that please?
Rated for great information
Joan: Didn't I recently read that you teach kindergarten? If so, isn't this what happens right before the bell rings? "He threw sand in my face first! . . .etc"
Just a thought.
This should be a lesson to all that entrusting your hard work to cyberspace alone is ill-advised. It isn't as though the writing were not already on the wall for all to see, as this has been approaching an apex for some time.
Search Surazeus and you will only find me.
I love Salon.com and Open.Salon.com so I hope both thrive no matter what happens.
Simply open one of your posts for viewing, then click on "File" and then (if in Firefox) "Save Page As" and let it default to "Web Page - Complete". It will save all of the comments, the thumbnails - in essence, the entire page.
Additionally, there are tools out there that can be used to archive web pages if one but Googles (or whatever may pass for Google at this moment).
Cheers!
Well.
Cockroaches always scatter when the lights are flipped on."
HAHAHAHAHA
ever since I wrote my 1ts blog, I was nervous that open salon could disappear with a flash into the ether. cyberspace is littered with the corpses/dust of dead companies/web sites. the list is long.
cyberspace is even more transitory than physical reality.
if it does disappear, that would be quite the zenlike lesson.....
I say a few of us pitch in to buy Salon when the price hits $20.
I have $3 to throw at this, but for that price I'm on the board of directors and damnit, I get a weekly cover slot.
Salon needs a new image, and perhaps a slant towards an older, wealthier and more easily frightened demographic. Those folks click on Metamucil and bulk purchase Depends ads like chickens peck corn meal. All we need is more writing that appeals to the elderly.
Think content for the incontinent...
We'll get rich!
Who's in?
Thank you for all you have done to help folks out here.
This is something we need to think about and prepare for even if it does not occur and we are somehow saved.
Sounds like things go fast when they go so will pen my So Long post soonly.
As for back-up, instead of writing a Word doc (or in addition), post on a sturdy platform like Blogger or Wordpress. My blog entries are always published there first. That way you have HTML stuff in tact.
"Why Salon.com may find a buyer hard to come by
Crain's New York Business | WSJ.com
"One issue for them might be that they have [too much] of a political profile for a media organization that sees itself as neutral," says Slate's Jacob Weisberg. "And they've been overtaken [on the left] by The Huffington Post in some respects." || Shira Ovide: Who wants to buy Salon? Anyone?
> Headline from 2003: Salon.com may fold within two weeks
Posted at 4:57 PM Nov. 29, 2010"
If you google pointer.com, you can find this.
Emily mentioned that the WSJ article had rattled some Open folk, so I came over to take a look. Yikes!
Look, any media company today that's not really, really huge would be nuts not to consider merger or acquisition options right now. But there's no reason for the nightmare scenarios -- I can't imagine any potential owner or partner not valuing Open enormously. There's nothing else like it -- a blog network filled with exceedingly smart people who can write. I have no reason to think Open Salon is going anywhere.
As for issues with the site -- I know all about them, and we're doing all we can. I know Emily has been keeping you updated on spam issues -- and I'm really thrilled we've finally put the controls in the hands of our trusted and diligent members. Many a night have I sat at home knocking off spammers one by one as they start popping up on Open, "clogging the feed" as some of you put it. I know Emily (and Thomas) have done the same thing. It's great to have help. But if progress has slowed, it's because the Salon mothership has required more of our Tech department's help, as part of a reasonably big overhaul. Once that's finished, we're hoping we can follow that up with some bigger changes to Open that will help -- a lot -- in the coming months.
Yes, that's maddeningly vague, but I promise to report progress some time soon, when we have a firmer time line in place. We should know a lot more in the coming month.
Best,
Kerry
Salon May Need Buyer To Keep Doors Open
Betsy Schiffman, 07.11.00, 12:05 PM ET
Salon.com isn't a big company. It's not even a big magazine. Yet, for the amount of press coverage the site gets, you'd think it was a conglomerate the size of Time Warner.
Salon's name saln (nasdaq: saln - news - people) graces the pages of Web business publications almost as frequently as Richard Simmons appears on talk shows in short shorts. Last month San Francisco-based Salon reported annual revenues of $8 million and a net loss of $21.9 million. It has a meager market value of about $18 million, and most of its revenue is derived from ad sales. It's not the most promising of businesses. But Salon is one of the few Web publications that semisuccessfully made its way to the public market, and for that reason alone, it's become the yardstick by which the industry measures the value of Internet content in the marketplace.
In recent months, however, the outlook hasn't been bright. Salon completed its public offering in June 1999 with shares closing at $10, but the stock is now on the verge of getting booted by the Nasdaq. Lately, shares have hovered just above $1, Nasdaq's required minimum bid price. If shares of Salon fall below $1 for 30 trading days, or six consecutive weeks, it can expect to receive a warning letter from the National Association of Securities Dealers that it has 90 days to shape up or ship out.
On July 10, two other online content sites, Suck.com and Feed magazine, announced plans to merge under a newly formed company, Automatic Media--in which Lycos lcos (nasdaq: lcos - news - people) is taking a 25% stake. Although finances are a concern for every Internet company, Feed co-founder Stefanie Syman swears money wasn't the driving force behind the merger. "I think that Feed could have gone on independently, and done very well in advertising indefinitely, but that's a smaller and less ambitious business," Syman says.
And on the Internet, there's no room for smaller, less ambitious businesses. With increasing pressure on Internet companies to merge, acquire and consolidate, small and independent just doesn't cut it anymore. So, what's to become of Salon?
It could be a rough road ahead if the company doesn't get hitched quickly. "You look back at the history of content, and it's always taken many years to get to profitability. It takes five years just to tell people who you are," says Abishek Gami, an analyst at the New York-based William Blair & Co.
Salon first told mainstream America who it was when it published the controversial story about Henry Hyde's extramarital affair in 1998. In Sept. 1999, the company was still spending heavily on branding and launched a flashy $4 million television advertising campaign.
And according to a document recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, marketing costs aren't going down anytime soon. "Salon intends to continue to make significant financial investments in content, marketing and promotion and the development of technology and infrastructure. As a result, Salon believes it will incur additional operating losses and negative cash flows from operations for the foreseeable future," reads the statement that sounds a lot like scores of other dot-com companies.
But now, with nearly 5 years under its belt and shares that are trading for less than a pack of bubble gum, it could be a little late to promote Salon--unless it's to a parent company.
Best Wishes,
Blittie
As for the comments: Exchanging e-mails? Of course, if you want to stay in touch. Discussing ways of helping to keep OS alive? Why not, if anyone is listening (Kerry seems to be, but no one knows how the new owners may view OS as "product")
Panicking? Seems a bit premature although understandable, especially if you have posts you haven't backed up (in which case, take Catherine's advice)
Continuing the snark wars of the past or using the comments to wage personal warfare? Completely unnecessary and kind of old school. Being a troll is so yesterday--unless you think getting down and dirty IS the point of OS.
I love this comment : )
**background sounds of hard drive duplication in process**
Give it up Patricia! What's going on with you two?