WASHINGTON — Salon, one of the early Internet’s most influential websites that featured sharp voices and political and cultural journalism backed by a liberal sensibility, announced Thursday that it will close after 31 years of publication. “It has been a great privilege,” the revolutionary said in a farewell note.
The news, which was surprising, said that “the business reality of independent digital journalism has changed significantly over the years.” He did not immediately indicate what would happen to their employees, although some said they had lost their jobs.
“Over three decades, Salon has brought politics, culture, criticism and ideas together in a way that was uniquely our own,” the anonymous farewell note said. “Our journalism explored power and politics, questioned assumptions, revealed stories that deserved attention and made room for perspectives that were too often overlooked. Our writers and editors helped shape conversations about the forces that were changing our lives.”
Salon began its life in the mid-1990s, just three years after the Internet itself went mainstream and a time when the “World Wide Web” was still spelled out that way. It launched a decade before the advent of newspaper and print markets—and a decade, too, before the rise of social media split the world of journalism.
As the name suggested, Salon was originally intended as an online magazine and meeting place, a site where ideas and more exciting stories that would not be at home in daily newspapers or even major newsweeklies such as Time or Newsweek could appear and generate debate. It quickly became a place where writers wanted their work to appear.
“The timing was right – readers were tired of bogus, market-driven media products, and the Internet allowed us to launch something original, something with a strong voice,” founder David Talbot said on the center’s five-year anniversary in 2000.
It attracted a group of high-profile writers and would-be celebrities, including Jake Tapper and Glenn Greenwald. Two of its leading editors, Talbot and Joan Walsh, also went on to become prominent progressive political voices.
As the Internet grew, so did Salon competition. Slate appeared the following year, and soon after, online magazines became the order of the day. Eventually, older print publications like The Atlantic began putting more content online and the online marketplace of ideas grew. Salon used the death of Princess Diana in 1997 to move beyond its culture-and-criticism roots and into news broadcasting.
Salon did not immediately say what would become of its vast online archives, which contain three decades of stories from around the world and across disciplines and genres.
In the statement, Salon also thanked its readers.
“You came to Salon for the journalism, the conversation, the essays, the criticism, the unexpected discoveries and the sense that there was a place on the Internet where opinions mattered,” he said. “You read, shared, challenged us, subscribed, wrote to us and kept coming back. Your commitment to Salon made exposure and community, and gave meaning to our work. We are so grateful for the time you spent with us.”