By now you've already noticed that Salon looks different today, and includes several new features. Here's a quick guide to what we've added:
Salon Business offers timely, smart coverage of business and finance, with an emphasis on the information industries -- entertainment, technology, media, publishing and advertising. The site will feature the work of finance columnist Steve Bodow, entertainment industry reporter Eric Boehlert, publishing industry reporter Craig Offman, media columnist Sean Elder and advertising columnist Ruth Shalit, as well as a daily Biz Buzz column of up-to-the-minute items. Bodow kicks things off today with a look at what the purchase of Web portal Lycos by a Spanish conglomerate means for the future of our phone bills.
Salon Sex takes up where our Urge department left off, offering intelligent, exciting writing on every angle of this subject. The site will present the daily news digest Naked World along with columnist Virginia Vitzhum, book excerpts, feature stories, photo galleries and more.
In Salon Shop, you'll find helpful recommendations and reviews from Salon's editors in nine categories, from books to technology, music and movies to fashion and food -- along with special offers and links to Salon partners who offer great online shopping deals. Shop opens today with advice on dealing with gift emergencies. In tandem with Salon Shop we also unveil Salon Plus, a one-stop source for all of Salon's contests and promotions, news of our TV ads, and special offers and handy services from Salon and its partners.
Our new look is designed to make it easier to find your way around Salon as we ramp up towards a true round-the-clock publishing cycle. If you're a regular reader, you know that right now we fully update all our sites each night and then add a smaller number of breaking news stories throughout the day. Improvements we're in the process of making in our publishing software will allow us to move onto the schedule we've long aimed for -- with stories on all our sites posted throughout the day, as they're ready. We'll be making this transition over the next few weeks as we continue to upgrade our behind-the-scenes technology.
The new Salon home page continues to highlight a single story or group of articles at any one time, and also offers highlights of what's available on each of our sites. As we move into round-the-clock mode you'll see the Salon "cover" and each of the site home pages changing much more frequently as we add new content. You'll also always be able to check our articles by date page for a complete listing of stories we've published, with the newest material at the top. Look soon also for the launch of the new Salon Directory -- -- offering a convenient and in-depth way to explore the thousands of pages of great writing and great stories Salon has published over nearly five years.
For the past few months our design and production team has worked closely with our technology staff to make these changes a reality. Web sites are always works in progress, and we'll continue to refine and improve all our sites as we learn more from you -- so please, once you've had a chance to spend some time with the new Salon, let us know what you think!
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