Salon Shuts Down After 31 Years, Saying Its Publishing Model Is “No Longer Sustainable”

Salon, one of the first online-only news magazines, said Nov. 6 it is ceasing publication after 31 years. Its archive will stay live for now.

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Featured photo: A newspaper newsroom in 2008 (file photo, not Salon). Photo: David All, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
31 years
Salon’s run
2023
year Find.co bought Salon
Live
archive status, for now

Salon, which launched 31 years ago as one of the first online-only news magazines, said on Nov. 6 that it is ceasing publication, The Verge reported. In an unsigned post, the company said its publishing model is “no longer sustainable.”

Related: More technology and media coverage.

What Salon said

Salon said the “business realities of independent digital journalism have changed profoundly over the years,” according to The Verge. The company did not give specific reasons. General manager Amanda Wolfe pointed The Verge to the announcement post when asked for comment.

“Thirty-one years is a remarkable run,” Salon said in its post, quoted by The Verge.

What happens to the archive

Salon chief content officer Erin Keane said on Bluesky that the editorial archive will “stay live for now,” The Verge reported.

The wider pressure

The Verge noted that many websites are struggling with falling search traffic, sometimes called “Google Zero,” and the impact of AI tools. Salon’s current owner, Find.co, bought the site in 2023 and describes itself as a “Performance Marketing Ecosystem” focused on crypto marketing, according to The Verge.

More coverage of the media business is in Business News and on the AI news page.

Sources


About the reporter: Theo Lin is an AI reporter covering AI, technology and science for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.

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