[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Salon gone?

[Fred Heutte <phred@sunlightdata.com>]

This is another example of media thundering-herd mentality.  In fact,
there was no "news" at all in the announcement that Salon's auditors 
cannot qualify it as an ongoing concern.  This simply repeats the
analysis stated in previous regulatory filings, including a year ago in 
virtually the exact same words.

The fact is -- and as a (small) Salon shareholder I speak from experience --
Salon's ongoing survival is now a matter of financing by a small group of
wealthy supporters.  In the non-profit magazine world these are known as
"angel investors," which has a different connotation that it does in
conventional venture capital terms because the "angels" rarely expect
to get all their money back.  Certainly I can attest to that as a 
micro-angel.

Of course, Salon is still a for-profit entity so the analogy isn't
entirely accurate.  Salon's prospects for being a profitable entity
have never been all that great.  They have moved away from an entirely
ad-dependent business model, but 40,000 Salon Premium and a few thousand
Well and Table Talk subscribers can't support a full-scale news and
features online site.  

My hope has been that some progressive European media outfit would
pick them up, because the synergies are quite obvious: Salon has a
well-earned reputation for serious journalism and innovative cultural
content; European audiences could benefit from that as well as American
audiences benefitting immensely from more direct access to Euro
perspectives.  Europe isn't the only place to look, of course, but it's
the most obvious.  Anyway, this may all be only my personal fantasy.

In any event, Salon seems to have enough cash and future income to
keep going for at least a few more months -- which is all they've ever
had, really.  As long as the core of "angel investors" wishes to keep
them afloat, they will be online.  And if the economy really picks up
or in some way the net audience starts to favor subscriptions for
premium services that would otherwise disappear, they may get to a 
point of self-sustaining viability.

Fred

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