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Salon's CEO Switch Is Also A Strategic Pivot

This article is more than 10 years old.

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Nine months ago, Salon.com's founder, David Talbot, took up the mantle of CEO, bearing with him a plan: By appealing to readers for financial support in the manner of NPR and PBS while keeping its content free to read, Salon could could diversify its revenue mix while maximizing its audience -- and thus its income from advertising.

It didn't quite work out that way. Nine months later, Talbot is stepping down as CEO, turning over the job to Cindy Jeffers, who comes over from the Huffington Post. Meanwhile, Salon Core, the membership/donor program Talbot championed, has gotten little enough traction that Jeffers says it won't be a focus going forward.

"I still feel it's important for readers to get involved again," says Talbot, noting that back in in 2006 nearly half of Salon's revenues came from its subscription program (since discontinued and then reconstituted as Salon Core). "I did find it a challenge, I have to admit. It was a challenge to move the needle significantly in the nine months I was there."

If consumers aren't going to be the source of your growth, then advertisers must be, which means increasing audience. But Salon's traffic has grown only modestly, from an average of about 6 million unique visitors per month when Talbot took over to between 7 million and 8 million per month now, according to editor in chief Kerry Lauerman.

"Like everyone else, we're looking to boost traffic and better use technology," Lauerman says.

That's where Jeffers comes in. At the Huffington Post, she was technical director. That site is known for its aggressive use of technology to drive traffic through innovations in everything from editorial tools to comments to social media integration.

"There have been a lot of changes in the last few years as far as technology companies defining the news industry from the outside," says Jeffers. "I want Salon to be a leader both technologically and journalistically."

In fact, Salon's board of directors originally recruited Jeffers to be CTO. It was only after getting to know her through that process that she emerged as a candidate for the CEO job. She now holds both titles.

"She came up with a great plan of marshaling our resources that everyone was really impressed by," says Lauerman.

Although it doesn't seem to have been made widely known outside the company, Talbot's role was meant from the outset to be a temporary one, both he and Lauerman say. "David came on with the intention of being a stop-gap until the board could find someone else," Lauerman says.

"I let everyone know, all the key people know, that I saw the role as interim," Talbot says. "It's something I've done on a spot basis when the company needs it."