Online Media Pioneer Salon To Shutter: “Our Publishing Model Is No Longer Sustainable”

Salon, one of the internet‘s earliest publications, is shutting down nearly 31 years after its launch.

The site announced Thursday in a farewell post that it would go dark later today. Salon was founded in the wake of a strike at the San Francisco Examiner when one of the newspaper’s editors, David Talbot, started exploring the publishing potential of the internet. Talbot was joined by Gary Kamiya, Andrew Ross, Mignon Khargie, Scott Rosenberg, and Laura Miller in co-founding the site, which debuted on Nov. 20, 1995.

Initially, the site’s web address was “salon1999.com” because “salon.com” was owned by a hair salon owner in Texas. A staffer later recalled that the salon owner “stubbornly refused to give it up until one of our founders flew down there and, after frank, open and increasingly Mafia-like negotiations, received the precious http://www.salon.com in exchange for a large bushel of Salon stock.”

The left-of-center site always maintained a San Francisco orientation, but gained a wide audience delivering news and criticicm about politics, culture, ideas and other areas. Along with other digital outlets like Slate, it gained traction through the Bill Clinton years and then during resistance to the George W. Bush administration and the Iraq War. Business-wise, these pioneers were buoyed by the sluggish response to the internet by legacy newspapers and magazines, whose fortress mentality only accelerated their disruption. As internet publishers flourished before the arrival of social media, Salon in those years took in enough revenue to at one point employ nearly 150 workers.

The 2010s and 2020s were far less kind to Salon and other web-based businesses reliant on advertising. In November 2023, privately held media company Find.co acquired Salon.com from previous owners Drew Schoentrup and Chris Richmond.

“The business realities of independent digital journalism have changed profoundly over the years,” Salon’s final post observed. “After careful consideration, we have reached the difficult decision that our publishing model is no longer sustainable. We know this news will be deeply disappointing to many of you, and we share that sadness.”

The article went on to emphasize the main takeaways from Salon’s “remarkable” 31-year run, including “the journalism, the ideas, the voices, the conversations and the community that grew around them. Salon helped demonstrate what digital journalism could be and could become. We hope that legacy will continue to matter long after today.”