How NOT to Run a Media Business

Salon is running out of money fast, and probably won't survive much longer despite taking in a big of cash via subscriptions. What did they do wrong?

Well, for one thing, the subscriptions ticked off more people than they signed up. Rather than adding value (like, ahem, the subscription service here at Writing On Your Palm), the Salon subscription service took a lot of content that people had gotten used to getting for free and locked it up.

Salon also seems to spend a lot more money than they need to. They've got 1.5 million bucks, which is supposed to last them about three months. I could put together a pretty nice site for 500 grand a month...

Check out the article. It's a good read, and a nice cautionary tale.