Salon's Q3 loss decreases

CBS Market Watch ^ | Jan. 28, 2002 | David B. Wilkerson

[Drango]

Salon's Q3 loss decreases
Online publisher says it has 35,000 paid subscribers

By David B. Wilkerson, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 6:44 PM ET Jan. 28, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Online magazine publisher Salon Media Group said after the market closed Monday that its fiscal third-quarter loss narrowed from the same period last year due to higher page views and increases in paid subscriptions to Salon.com.

Salon also said it had $2.1 million in cash available as of Dec. 31, compared to $2.9 million at the end of the September period. Cash burn is a primary issue for online media companies, many of which were forced to close over the past year due to lagging advertising revenues.

Michael O'Donnell, the company's chief executive, said in a statement that the company believes it can reach cash flow profitability in 2002. ,(not if we can help it, see below)

Shares (SALNC: news, chart, profile) closed unchanged at 14 cents ahead of the news.

The company said its loss from operations was $820,000,(bummer) or 6 cents a share, compared with a deficit of $3.2 million, or 24 cents, in the same quarter last year.

There was no Thomson Financial/First Call survey of analysts' estimates on the company. Salon was moved from the Nasdaq National Market to the Nasdaq Small Cap exchange last year.

On a reported basis, including write-downs of long-lived assets and other costs, Salon's net loss was $1.4 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a loss of $5.6 million, or 43 cents.

Revenue plunged 50 percent to $1.1 million due to industry-wide ad weakness.

Salon says paid subscriptions accounted for 31 percent of its sales in the latest period, and that the number of paying users has risen to 35,000 through Jan. 22. Some 12,000 subscribers were added during the December period, the company said. "While we believe strongly that the online advertising business will be lucrative over the long term," said O'Donnell, "we're proving that people are willing to pay for quality content in a subscription model ..."

Salon charges users $30 per year to gain access to special political coverage, certain name columnists, audio downloads, galleries of erotic art ,(including kiddie PORN)and photography, and to be able to navigate the site without running into pop-up ads.

For long-time users accustomed to free content throughout the Web, Salon's proposal was somewhat controversial. But the company maintains that it is necessary to somehow augment online ads if it is to survive.David B. Wilkerson

[Drango]

(Palm, http://www.palm.com/about/contacts.html is the latest advertiser on Salon; contact 'em today and let's see if we can increase next quarter's loss!!)

If you need to contact Palm, you can reach us using the appropriate method below.

Palm, Inc. Corporate Headquarters 5470 Great America Pkwy Santa Clara, CA USA 95054 1 (408) 878-9000 Main Phone 1 (408) 878-2750 Main Fax Worldwide Locations Click here for contact information for all of our global offices. Product Support Use our Contact Options page for help with a Palm product. Palm OS Platform Support • Technical Knowledge Base • Non-technical Knowledge Base Sales 1 (800) 881-7256 US 1 (877) 597-7256 Canada 1 (801) 431-1536 Outside US & Canada Shop the Palm™ Store online. US

Enterprise Information Use our Online Form to contact the Palm Enterprise group for information on the enterprise solutions that interest you. Press Contacts For use by Media & Analyst personnel only. Investor Relations Palm, Inc. Investor Relations Department MS 9204 5470 Great America Parkway Santa Clara, CA 95054-3644 1 (408) 878-1100 Phone 1 (877) OWN-PALM IR Information Line 1 (408) 878-2790 Fax palm.IR@corp.palm.com Palm Ventures Use our Online Form to submit a proposal for funding. Palm Websites Contact our webmaster with questions, comments and locations of broken links on Palm.com, Palm.net or PalmOS.com.

[codebreaker]

So the Titanic is taking on less water into the hull this hour..

[monkeyshine]

[monkeyshine]

[eureka!]

LOL. Still not a business model that I would pursue....

[Drango]

PING

[RedBloodedAmerican]

ping!

[ken5050]

Remember, the paying subscribers DON'T get advertizing to clog up their screens..

[Dat]

I agree with your method of dealing with Salon. If we could get 1/3rd of the registered members of FR to write a letter to Salon's advertisers we should be able to increase that cash burn at least a little bit.

[isthisnickcool]

Salon is going to buy one of Enron's offshore shells and merge with Talk magazine. The new company will be located in an old K-Mart building that they got a good deal on since Terry Mcauliffe negotiated the rent in return for equity and a seat on the board.

Authur Anderson says that the financials look great! The new venture will be called Salon-Talk (NASD:STLK). This is going to be really big! I can get anyone here in on some private placement shares. Terry says they are only $6.00 a share. Have to hold them 18 months though.

Terry says if we can get enough sucker, er, investors together we can pump and dump STLK like crazy. Bill and Hill are in. Can't lose! Pass it on.

[1L]

The company said its loss from operations was $820,000

I'm glad to know that laid off Enron accounting personnel found work.

[finnman69]

Remember, the paying subscribers DON'T get advertizing to clog up their screens..

LOL, I love this logic. Salon is a pay pre view site now, but there is no advertising on screen for subscribers.
Who's watching the advertising?

[Drango]

I agree with your method of dealing with Salon. If we could get 1/3rd of the registered members of FR to write a letter to Salon's advertisers we should be able to increase that cash burn at least a little bit.

LOL...well we can dream...I'll ping some more people and perhaps we can stop the kiddie porn. Here is another advertiser winetasting.com and an 800 #, 1.888.540.9463, and the names/bios of the "enablers"

Commitment to Customers  |  Contact Us  |  Mission  |  What's New

Executive Team

Lesley Berglund - President and CEO
Lesley Berglund is a third-generation native of the Napa Valley from a grape growing family. She graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991 where she turned a field study project into the business plan for the Ambrosia Catalogue of Fine Wines. Her background includes sales management with The Clorox Company and Proctor and Gamble, management consulting with the MAC Group (now Gemini Consulting), and international wine marketing with Codorniu (in Barcelona, Spain). She earned a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University in Middleton, CT. Since she co-founded the company in 1991, Lesley has built strong supplier relationships with more than 100 of the top wineries in the Napa and Sonoma valleys. She serves as president of the San Francisco Chapter of YEO (Young Entrepreneurs Organization) and serves on the boards of two wine industry associations: Free The Grapes and the Coalition for Free Trade. Lesley has become a vocal industry spokesperson on the issue of inter-state direct shipping of wine. Her extensive winery contacts, as well as her successful wine merchandising and direct marketing track record, make her uniquely qualified to lead the company in its evolution as Winetasting.com.

Karen Roche - Chief Operations Officer
Karen Roche has spent the majority of her career helping companies improve their market development strategies and develop corresponding organization and support structures to execute these strategies. Her background includes 10 years of management consulting, first at Towers Perrin General Management Practice and then at Sibson & Company as a managing partner. She also brings 10 years of sales and marketing experience at technology services firms including ADP - Network Services and Control Data. Karen is a frequent lecturer at both the UCLA and USC graduate business schools, and has been published in several business journals. She earned her MBA degree from the Anderson School at the University of California at Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

[Timesink]

bump for Salon Deathwatch bump list

[Jonathon Spectre]

The circles around the drain get tighter and faster...

Good riddance leftist trash! Oh, wait, can't say that yet, they're still around. >pauses expectantly, eyes alight<

[Chad Fairbanks]

Hah! At 14 cents a share, we should all form a conglomerate and take it over... then, turn it into a very mena-spirited anti-left site... bwaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa