I have been a long time reader of Salon. I was there when there were no memberships. I still visited salon throughout their uncomfortable efforts to turn a profit. Nowadays, I mainly stop in to read the AP wire stories, and check their headlines for an interesting article. I would probably click through for a free day pass once a week. But all that is changing.
Salon now wants you to click through their ads to view AP wire stories. Little snippets of news that are from the Associated Press and are published for free on almost every news site. They want you to sit through their 30 second annoying ads to view content available for free EVERYWHERE.
Congrats salon. You’re off the bookmarks list. The one thing that kept me coming back to your site, and clicking through to your advertised content, is gone.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that salon owes me anything. Other than the occasional clickthrough, they’ve never gotten any money from me. But every clickthrough counts for something, and especially when all it costs you is offering news that you’re just aggregating from other sites anyway for free. It just doesn’t seem like very smart business.
At any rate, Salon, it was nice while it lasted.