Personally I'm not upset by banner ads, blinking boxes or any of the other commercial marginalia that festoon the pages of Salon.com. Advertising of all kinds has paid my salary ever since I first started reporting for a little weekly newspaper, so I don't mind the ads much at all. What I would mind very much, however, is no Salon at all.
To me, buying a subscription to Salon Premium means supporting the important journalism and the strong, refreshing, unorthodox writing about politics and culture that appears here every day. It's a way to speak up forcefully for the best possibilities of a new medium, rather than passively accepting the mediocrity dished out by a few corporate behemoths. And frankly, it's an endorsement of a publication with the independence to stand alone, when necessary, against the conventional idiocy.
Thirty bucks is a cheap price for such a powerful statement. In fact, Salon Premium is a beautiful bargain. Lose the ads. Keep the quality.
-- Joe Conason
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