Type of site
|
News website |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | Salon Media Group Inc. |
Created by | David Talbot |
Editor | Pete Catapano and Alex Bhattacharji |
Key people | Jordan Hoffner (CEO) |
Website | salon |
Alexa rank | 2,130 (November 2016[update]) |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | April 18, 1995 |
Current status | Online |
OCLC 43916723 |
Salon is a progressive media website created by David Talbot in 1995 and part of Salon Media Group (OTCQB: ). It focuses on U.S. politics and current affairs.
Salon's headquarters is located at 870 Market Street San Francisco, California. As of June 2013, its editor-in-chief is David Daley, after previous editor-in-chief Kerry Lauerman stepped down to partner with Larer Ventures on a new startup. Lauerman's predecessor Joan Walsh stepped down from that position in November 2010 but remained as editor at large.
Salon magazine covers a variety of topics. These include reviews and articles about books, films, and music; articles about "modern life", including friendships, human sexual behavior, and relationships; and reviews and articles about technology, with a particular focus on the free software/open source movement.
According to the senior contributing writer for the American Journalism Review, Paul Farhi, Salon offers "provocative (if predictably liberal) political commentary and lots of sex".
In 2008, Salon launched the interactive initiative Open Salon, a social content site/blog network for its readers. Originally a curated site with some of its content being featured on Salon, it fell into editorial neglect and was closed in March 2015.
Responding to the question, "How far do you go with the tabloid sensibility to get readers?", former Salon.com editor-in-chief David Talbot said:
Is Salon more tabloid-like? Yeah, we've made no secret of that. I've said all along that our formula here is that we're a smart tabloid. If by tabloid what you mean is you're trying to reach a popular audience, trying to write topics that are viscerally important to a readership, whether it's the story about the mother in Houston who drowned her five children or the story on the missing intern in Washington, Chandra Levy.