Word seems to  be getting out that we filled our main TV writer slot, so thought I'd quickly post the news here: Willa Paskin (at left) will be joining Salon fulltime next week to write, review and report on all things TV.

It's a homecoming of sorts:… Read full post »

Wanted to commend Sarah Fister Gale on her powerful piece, "Why Rick Santorum would have killed my daughter." You should read it if you haven't already. It's the type of story I love, a response to big news that's uniquely personal,  but also, broadly impactful. I love featuring those stories in… Read full post »

We're unveiling a bit of a programming experiment later tonight (at 11:59 p.m., ET, to be precise) on Salon. And, I must warn you, it involves the most tedious of subjects, the spinach of story ideas, the NyQuil of news, and I'll forgive you if you stop reading… Read full post »

There's a terrible stereotype about Web editors, that we just care about traffic. Page views, unique visitors, clicks, hits, eyeballs, drivebys, furtive peeks, longing glances and everything in between.

And it's true! 

Except I'm here to tell you that there's no easy trick, no gimmick, to draw… Read full post »

We tried a little experiment to cut down on the spam this week, and from my vantage point -- catching up on my Open reading, including many pioneers who seem to have returned (Hi K.M., Sandra!) -- it seems much better. Others? Or have they managed to find their way into… Read full post »

Hey folks,

About a month ago, I posted somewhat cryptically here that a major improvement lurked on the horizon -- and it has (mostly) arrived. We've migrated Salon proper onto a new platform (WordPress), giving Open Salon vastly more database space to roam. It should make Open a vastly faster… Read full post »

...and the promise of more frequent appearances in the future.

The fortitude of Open bloggers to put up with our wheezing and whirling and battered servers is one of the most impressive feats on the Internet. I should have news, not too far off, that will hopefully offer some sitewide… Read full post »

For the first time that I can recall (and my memory stretches past a decade) Salon burst past the 6 million number for monthly unique visitors to the site, according to Google analytics (6.308 million, to be exact). Pretty cool. It continues a pretty satisfying three-month climb in 2011 (I've  w… Read full post »

Just a quick report on February's traffic on Salon.

Monthly unique visitors (MUVs) hit 5.3 million, the second month in a row over 5 million, and charting a 24 percent increase over February 2010. Pretty good. We're off to a strong March already, and have a few  features planned that we're… Read full post »

After reviewing Salon's most recent  Google Analytics traffic data with our editorial staff, I thought it made sense to share with Salon readers, too, particularly those on Open Salon, where our readers are also writers, and very much a crucial part of the whole Salon ecosystem. I… Read full post »

I posted this over on Catherine's blog, but thought I'd pull out a separate post, in case anyone had any questions:

Hello!

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… Read full post »

 (Cool draft logo for the series from Mignon Khargie)

We're launching a new series on Salon next week that I'm pretty excited about. It'll be called Made (the tagline: "The value in creating stuff") and will feature a weekly installment from one of our favorite writers/artists who will… Read full post »

. . . Emily Holleman. She's been quietly learning the ropes for a few weeks now, and doing a terrific job. Welcome, Emily! Go learn more about her.

UPDATED (6/2): We've chosen and notified the Open members who will get the books in the mail. We had a lot of emails, so we pulled randomly from list of those of you who sent in requests. If you didn't get it this time, I hope you'll try again on our… Read full post »

Hanky time -- today is Judy Berman's last day as editor of Open Salon. Judy is leaving us to blog full time about arts and culture at Flavorpill.

Since she took over from Thomas Rogers last year, Judy's impressed us with her consistently high standards and excellent judgment. She's really… Read full post »

Our friends at Participant Media have offered some select passes for Open Salon members interested in seeing an advance screening of "Casino Jack," the upcoming documentary from Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney ("Taxi To The Dark Side," "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"). The Jack in question… Read full post »

We've had an unfortunate run of bad luck here at Salon, with two of our longest, and most beloved, staffers taking leaves of absence to deal with some untimely medical problems. Thankfully,  Cary Tennis and King Kaufman are both back on the road to recovery, and we eagerly… Read full post »

Some of you may have noticed your fellow Open members -- and their Open posts -- popping up with increasing frequency on Salon. This is part of a new initiative to regularly tap into our Open talent pool to make Salon a more vibrant, expansive site. The purpose of Open… Read full post »

We have a new Open Salon editor: Judy Berman, who is right over here. Judy's been a part of Salon's extended family for a while now -- we're thrilled to bring her into the fold.

We were inundated with tons of fantastic applications. But as we discussed the job more, we came… Read full post »

This sign, brought to my attention by a co-worker, is in our office's ladies bathroom, just inside a stall door. I took this pic while being chaperoned by the lovely Miss Sarah Hepola. 

I should take this opportunity to say that we adore the building staff here.

Read full post »

In recent months, as I've turned my attention to Salon and helping prepare it for a redesign and many new features, Thomas Rogers has nimbly overseen Open Salon, carefully choosing Editor's Picks and consistently building fascinating and entertaining covers for Open Salon. It can be a tricky, content… Read full post »

This sign, at the entrance of Salon NY headquarters, quite possibly strikes a poor first note.

That's what's left of my parents' charming, windowed back porch after a tornado blew through their small Midwestern town Wednesday night, tearing off roofs, downing giant oak trees, and miraculously not harming a single person. In a few short seconds, a funnel cloud blew past, tore up the po… Read full post »

If you're a film lover or an animal lover, or both, you've probably seen the glowing reviews,  read and listened to the interviews, or been riveted by the resulting news coverage.  You're probably so on board with the Louie Psihoyos' film "The Cove," that you're ready to call your Congress… Read full post »