Salon.com cuts editorial content by 25 percent. Ouch.

June 12, 2000 - Salon.com is still emphasizing breaking national news, but don't query about writing opportunities for the travel site. It's no longer there, a casualty of cost-cutting measures needed to keep the web site afloat. In addition, the book site has been slow, causing a scale back in that section.

The total damage is an estimated 25 percent reduction in overall editorial content, a horrific thought given that Salon.com actively encourages article queries and submissions, a real plus for ambitious freelance writers.

What caused all of this? Perhaps negative reaction to the site's recent redesign or the resulting technical troubles which fueled frustration. Could it possibly be the 18.3 million loss from the last year? The bottom line is that web sites (and Salon.com does classify itself as such instead of an online magazine according to managing editor Scott Rosenberg), are still a very risky business and writers need to stay on their toes with this media.

So we'll say goodbye to 13 staffers and 20 percent of the operating budget and 25 percent of editorial content and hope that the belt-tightening works. Meanwhile, visit our database for more information, and reacquaint yourself with Salon.com's web site before sending a query.