Salon reports 2003 financials

According to Salon's 2003 annual report, two companies are going to start bundling its content this month with other providers for a combined subscription.

There's lots of stuff in the report to excite the vultures who have been prematurely celebrating its demise for years, along with a few bright spots. Subscription revenue is up 60 percent, to $1.9 million, and yearly subscribers are renewing at a rate of 71 percent. It owns $5.5 million in television advertising credits that are being sold to generate working capital.

Also, as I suspected, the talk by some critics that Salon Blogs was an expensive boondoggle for the company was entirely baseless. It isn't mentioned at all, which suggests that it's a break-even project that requires little time or expense to offer.

Salon Blogs · 2003/07/02 · 1 COMMENT · Link

Comments

I'm sure Salon Blogs costs the company very little money. I'd like to see them go further with the project. In general, I'd like the Radio software to get wider deployment. I think if they had more money they could market their blogs a little better.

Salon definitely offers some good content. I'm a premium subscriber. Some of it seems a little stale and caught up in Old School newspaper traditions. Salon will continue as it is for a while, but I think it will have to get some new investors, new management, new blood. Maybe a few younger folks. Maybe the upcoming elections will increase readership too.

#1 · Gary Santoro · 2003/07/03