NewsMax.com
Wednesday, March 21, 2001

If you don't mind having the page cluttered with banners and other forms of advertising, you can still browse Salon free of charge. But if you are willing to cough up $30 a year, you can have an adless version of the magazine and read features not available on the free site.

To make the cheese more binding, readers who opt for the free version will have to put up with even bigger commercial come-ons and those infuriating pop-up frames that drive Internet readers bonkers.

"When I first encountered ads of that size on zdnews I was shocked and annoyed. And now, well now I read the same news, but on Yahoo instead," wrote a reader, posting comments as "cargoculture."

Wrote editor David Talbot in a letter to readers: "Now, we must ask our loyal readers to help keep Salon's unique voice booming. Too much of our public life is banal and dull-witted; we are surrounded by a media universe that is a daily insult to our intelligence. This is why we hold dear such treasures as our local public radio stations – they help keep us from mentally decomposing."

Salon’s financial woes have been widely publicized since the magazine – a blatantly pro-Clinton Web site – began laying off staff and cutting salaries. Its stock has plunged into the basement.

The history of such attempts to sell subscriptions to Web publications has been dismal. Huge Microsoft, for example, tried it with Slate and saw it fail. Only the Wall Street Journal's online edition has been able to make it pay.

That history has not fazed Salon.

Scott Rosenberg, senior vice president of editorial operations at Salon, told Wired magazine that Slate's failure to make subscriptions work did not mean that Salon must suffer a similar disappointment.

"We feel like the times are different now – there's a wider understanding among the Internet public that there isn't likely to be, in the long term, as much choice and quality of content," Rosenberg said. "Online users are willing to contribute to pay for it."

Rosenberg added that despite the depressed ad market, Salon's been experiencing record-breaking traffic in recent months. The site attracted 2.7 million unique visitors in February, he said.

At least one Salon reader is willing to pay the freight for an ad-free version, Wired reports.

"I don't mind the ads. I now have a natural reflex that closes popup windows before they even think of starting to render. The issue is not the annoyance to the user ... the issue is supporting what you like. What is a couple of dollars?"

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