Salon sold itself for $5 million in 2019, twenty years after investors valued it far higher at its IPO. In 1995 David Talbot, an editor at the San Francisco Examiner, started one of the first serious magazines made only for the web. It published essays, criticism, politics and long interviews, free to read and paid for by ads. When it went public in June 1999, investors were betting that great writing would draw great ad money online.

A Newsroom Without Paper

Talbot and a small group of journalists launched Salon in November 1995. Their bet was that the web could carry the writing of a good magazine without the cost of printing and mailing it. Salon built a loyal audience and a reputation for scoops and voice. It also learned early that web ads paid far less than print ads for the same readers.

Twenty Years of Hard Math

Salon priced its IPO at $10.50 a share on June 22, 1999, with W.R. Hambrecht as lead underwriter, and listed on Nasdaq as SALN. The dot-com ad crash hit it hard, and the company lost money for years. It tried paid subscriptions and cut staff again and again. In 2019 Salon Media Group sold the website and its other assets to Salon.com LLC for $5 million.

Cover: View of the Salon in the Louvre in the Year 1753, Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a crowded Paris salon (a salon of ideas).