Salon: Smart Web Magazine Relies on Books, Publishers
Calvin Reid -- 2/9/98
Salon, an online literary and cultural magazine, visited New York City in late January to throw a party to celebrate its annual book awards, promote its much-praised, book-heavy editorial mix and to solicit support and advertising from book publishers.Thirty-five percent of Salon's (www.salonmag.com) editorial mix is book-related, said Salon founder, CEO and editor-in-chief David Talbot, who, along with Salon publisher Michael O'Donnell, visited the newly organized monthly meeting of book-industry Web workers (Web Watch, Jan. 26) that included Penguin's Kathryn Berman, S&S's Lisa Mandel, Random House's Amy Cook and BDD's Jon Guttenberg, among many others (this one was held at S&S). Salon features thoughtful literary commentary, reviews, interviews and reader forums. Its retailing partnership with Borders Books &Music (an original partner of the site) will grow in commercial impact when Borders g s online sometime within the next month. Talbot claims that Salon's traffic is growing steadily (nearly six million page views per month and about 150,000 regular readers) and he expects to attract as many as 500,000 regular visitors. Salon's Book Buyers Survey reported that 97% of its clientele visits a bookstore once a month, and last year collectively spent $55 million on books. According to Talbot, Web visitors spend more time at Salon - an unusually high average for the Web of 38 minutes - and view it as a destination for all kinds of book information and, most importantly, for book purchasing. Salon's visitors cite "selection, price and convenience," as reasons for buying online. Based in San Francisco, Salon will open a New York office in March staffed by senior editors Laura Miller and Dwight Garner and its sales staff. Talbot acknowledged that, like most Web ventures, Salon is not yet profitable, although he expects to break even this year. However, like other Web entrepreneurs, he seems to be far more interested in establishing Salon as a brand, noting that "it takes time to build a publishing operation." He presented a number of marketing and promotional partnerships and packages (from its $1500-per-month Salon Bookcase to a variety of banner ads) available to publishers and he noted that, of course, Salon is shopping around proposals for its own books. Unlike the more politically oriented Web magazine Slate (which has announced plans to charge for access), Salon has decided to remain free, but will experiment with a number of subscription-based features, among them the upcoming Dark Hotel, a 12-week graphic novel Web-cast featuring cartoonists Art Speigelman, Spain Rodriguez and others. -Calvin Reid Back To News---> |
