] SAN FRANCISCO (TMS) - The parties at Salon.com have been
] rather lean lately.
]
] Late last year, the pioneering online magazine celebrated
] its seventh anniversary with a small gathering in its
] downtown office here. In 1999 Salon had leased two floors
] in a new office tower just off Market Street. With bare
] concrete underfoot and exposed ducts and wiring overhead,
] the office was all dot-com swagger with stunning city
] views to match Salon's ambition as a public company that
] would leverage its brand into spinoff businesses in
] everything from television to software.
]
] Those grand visions never came to pass. Instead, the
] greatly shrunken Salon staff in November was lifting
] margaritas in toast to its unlikely survival. "Almost
] from the beginning," Salon founder David Talbot wrote in
] a note posted online, "our little magazine has carried on
] its back a host of doomsayers, idly kicking our sides
] with their heels as they enumerated the reasons our days
] were numbered. No one wanted to read serious articles
] online, much less pay for them. Only sites that
] specialized in finance or tech coverage would survive. We
] were too literary, too edgy."
]
] Talbot wasn't at the party; he was on the road trying to
] raise money to keep the lights on.

The Beaufort Gazette: Salon.com clings to dot-com swagger