No other news medium has come close to Salon for the quality of its reporting following September 11. As a regular reader of the Times and the Post, I can safely say your daily coverage has been far more insightful than that of either of these two "papers of record." It is with pleasure that I pay the nominal $30 annual subscription. Heck, the Times charges me $20 a month for Saturday and Sunday delivery only!
-- Gustavo Pena
The reality of economics is economics -- especially on the Internet as the last two years have shown. Selfishly, I want Salon to continue to exist so I applaud your efforts to entice people to the Salon premium subscription -- and more great stuff that is part of Salon premium should ideally create more subscribers and therefore more money for Salon, which means more Salon for me. Great! Do let people know that their subscription amounts to something like 8 cents a day, which beats the old Sally Struthers TV pitch cold -- and the daily cost for every sold newspaper that I am aware of.
-- Patricia Gardner
Thanks for putting the news and politics into the premium area! I was hoping you'd do that to make me feel like less of a chump for being an early subscriber to Salon Premium. It's well worth the price for quality, and it's great to see news without the surreal "America's New War" logo slapped on every screen. Kudos and best wishes to Salon to keep it going now and in the future!
-- Martin Focazio
I sent in another $100 over and above my premium subscription. I'll soon send in more. (I'd probably send in even more if David Horowitz were suddenly missing from Salon, relegated to Web sites where intellect is not a requirement!)
Do what you have to do to stay alive! Non-payers are only useful if you have ad revenue and if that is drying up, you need to try something different. This isn't a public service; it's a business!
Try a lot of stuff. Keep what works. Repeat. Best of luck to you.
-- Forrest MacGregor
(Paying for it and loving it!)
I fully support your decision to move your news and politics coverage under the "Premium" umbrella. Whatever you need to do to keep alive, do it. I am already a subscriber, and will encourage my friends to become subscribers as well. We need Salon more than ever now. Journalism is dying, and you guys are the only hope of having any kind of meaningful "mainstream" journalism.
-- Daniel Read
At first, I thought the idea sucked, but after reading David Talbot's editorial, I have to say that I'll pay the small fee to have kick-ass Salon coverage. Keep up the good work!
-- Elizabeth Lyons
Respecting your need for financial support, I purchased a two year subscription. Given the quality of your reporting, I would be happy to provide subscription to friends if it were convenient. I'll bet I'm not alone.
-- Ray Nichols
I've been a paying subscriber for about 6 months now, and as long as you're around (and as long as prices stay reasonable) I'll keep subscribing -- Salon is worth it. It's the first and only site I've subscribed to that didn't imply one-handed surfing (if you know what I mean). Hope you can stick around.
-- James
I am delighted to see that you have finally begun charging for access to Salon news articles. I became a Salon Premium subscriber several months ago out of a desire to give financial support to an important source of news in my daily life. I have continued to worry, however, that not enough people would subscribe since most of the content remained free, and that Salon would go the way of so many other online publications.
It is time we all recognized that, just as we now see we cannot get good airport security for the minimum wage, we cannot get good news for free.
I am happy to pay any reasonable subscription price for access to Salon. It is time for all readers of Salon to do likewise.
-- Amy Isikoff Newell
Salon.com is the best thing I've read in years! I understand your decision to begin charging -- it's a reality we all have to face.
Just let me congratulate you on rounding up such a great group of writers and contributors. Even if I don't agree, the writing is always thought-provoking. And, of course, I'll miss Mr. Blue who is one of the best writers in the country.
My suggestion would be to ask each subscriber to get just one of their friends to subscribe. That's what I'm going to do. My son is an editor at a newspaper (a NY Times newspaper) here in Florida and certainly needs a different perspective from AP or NY Times wire. He's my "target."
I think we are going to be going through a period similar to the '60s and early '70s with a great deal of national angst. Thanks for bringing clear, concise stories that consistently take the road not traveled. I have e-mailed many of your articles to various friends in the past and will continue to do with a note attached that speaks of a subscription.
It is often a lonely thing to try to do something that is pure and good and doesn't go with the mainstream. In these cases, the doing of the thing is often the only reward -- and it is personal. But this note hopes to convey to you that there are those of us who greatly appreciate your efforts and support you as best we can.
-- Harriet Smith
As someone who has avidly read Salon since soon after its inception and signed up to be a premium subscriber on the first day it was offered, I think you're being much too kind to people who complain about not being able to access all articles for free.
Anyone who believes that a Web site can still put up all its content for free -- to say nothing of content that is of a quality as high as any print publication's -- is either brain dead or has just returned from an Antarctic vacation that commenced in April, 2000 when the stock market was at its high.
People too stingy to part with a measly 30 bucks for the quality of product that Salon provides should have their computers confiscated and given to more deserving recipients.
-- Tim Callahan
Good for you, Salon, in taking the lead with Web subscriptions. Hopefully, others will follow your lead. Web news sites -- especially Web-only operations -- can't continue to give away valuable stories and other content for free. A free Web may be the model the Internet was built on (and gee, doesn't it sound nice), but as we have all found out, it is unsustainable.
-- Greg O'Brien
Although I signed up as a premium subscriber last week, I was sad to see that you have had to make a subscription necessary for reading the news in Salon.
Sad, but not angry. Sad because it would be wonderful if everyone with Internet access could get the daily news from Salon, especially in these perilous times. That kind of access is what we all hoped the Internet would provide. But I firmly believe there is no Internet publication that even comes close to Salon in the quality of reporting and writing. And if advertisers won't support you, then we who depend on you must.
Besides, it's worth more than the thirty bucks not to have to endure one more stupid "title" on a news program--"America at War!" "America Fights Back!" "America on the Brink!" America throws up ... .
Also, you have no Paula Zahn or Wolf Blitzer. That's worth another thirty bucks.
Thanks for the great job you do! I can't imagine a day without Salon!
-- Pamela Erbe
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