Speaking as a professional writer, I'd like to contribute to SALON, but frankly? I already have a "free" web presence. My bl-g is for fun; if I were to write an article for you guys, you'd need to pay me. Call me cynical, but I see this idea as a sly way of generating more content without having to invest in its producers.

And I very much hope that such a plan would NOT lead your editors to jettison a portion of your freelancers and/or staff writers.

I put this in the comments section of my survey, but figured it should be posted here too.

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Hi! I visit Salon for news and informed commentary - I count on you for a broad spectrum of information that's not readily available to me. I've subscribed to Salon for years because your coverage and insight are better than the dreck on my television and in my local papers. You respect my intelligence and my schedule.

I do not subscribe to Salon for personal blogs, pictures, or podcasts. I miss the spit and polish of the Letters to the Editor page - I understand that it takes a lot of manpower hours to trudge through all of those letters....but really....that editing helped tighten the focus of the sight and its readership. If I wanted a "real-time soapbox", there are other places that I can head to. You know, like, Table Talk.

Sure, Salon is a great community - but the thing about the internet is that relevance is one of the highest priorities with service. Personal blogs? Videos and columns? Everyone gets published no matter how good or how topical? Salon can't be everything to everyone. I want Salon to stay Salon, not MySpace with a side column for headlines. Snobbish? Yes. I have no problem admitting it. I want my content from Salon intelligent (even when irreverent), well-researched, and fierce. I do not want a typo-ridden lame article to foster the "internet experience". I want more for Salon that all that. I expect more.

Salon, for me, has been a voice. A place for articles that mass media forgets and commentary that politicians want you to forget. Savvy reviews of movies and books (not interviews with authors claiming to be reviews) that spark community interest But that voice is -not- a cacophony of personal readers and their stuff.

The Salon voice that made me subscribe used to say to get the heck off your computer and be in the world. Go see that independent movie. Go vote in the local election. Find time to volunteer at that community center. Find that book and call that artist, and thank them for being around. Think deeply about what's going on. Why aren't you furious (or laughing or stupified) and doing something about it? Stop being complacent and looking at photos of people's ugly dogs and their videos of their daughter's prom! That's what I've always felt Salon's been saying. Maybe not about the ugly dog thing, but...

Thanks. Just because most of the country is dumb doesn't mean you should be too. Don't lower your standards. That's what I basically want to say.

For the first time ever, I read some of the other letters before writing this (since I wasn't expecting to write one).

The letter titled "Where's the science?" reminds me that I had the same thought about a week ago. ('S funny -- I've been reading Salon for over six months, I'm a scientist, and it hadn't occurred to me before last week.)

I don't know what the editors were thinking, of course. But science is so very important to understanding and evalutating what's going on in the world.

Even much science that's not immediately applicable to understanding the rest of the world is valuable. Learning about the discovery of a new fish, a new mathematical insight re four-dimensional space, a new grasp of how rivers evolve, a new theory about how the universe formed -- this kind of thing expands our horizons and helps deliver us from our petty and mundane concerns by putting ourselves in perspective.

The blogs were a good idea at first, but I agree with some of the other posters: they too often degenerate into silliness. Snark is the major problem here. War Room was nice for a while, a digest of election-related articles, but on some dry news days it sounds a little too precious. I won't even talk about Broadsheet or VideoDog. Thank God Peter Daou boils the political blogs down for me so I don't actually have to read the damn things.

The no-portal comments also ring true--don't try to embrace the latest blogging trend just to be all things to all people. And, heaven forfed, don't become slashdot! I was surprised by how many slashdotters are coming out of the woodwork here--myself included. But I go to slashdot for the slashdot experience, and I come to Salon for the Salon experience. Goofy in-jokes, friends-fans-foes-freaks, karma whores, geek subculture--that's fine for slashdot, and I like to keep it there. In 1998 I discovered a web magazine that actually had interesting, informative and thought-provoking journalism, which was simply amazing. The in-group subculture was nicely limited to TableTalk and the Well, neither of which I felt interested in reading.

When I go to a journalism site, I like to read edited articles produced by professionals with an ear for language, not the latest home-brew screed. There's plenty of places for screeds on the Web, and sometimes I seek them out. I'd rather not find them on Salon.

Scott:

I hope that you and your colleagues recognize the plurality of opinion here.

I, like many other if not the majority of premium subscribers, pay for the intellectual salon metaphor, not the fast-approaching hair salon one.

Seriously written journalism, please, not idiomatic gossip that will appear as dated in three years as "You go, girl," and, "Let's not go there" already did in 2003.

But now I really can't stand it.

After you left, everything changed.

And it is bad. I am a premium subscriber and have been for years. I will let my subscription end and say goodbye.

But before I go I also want to say I miss the "sex" section too.

And,

as a woman who uses a breast pump and is a strong, liberal feminist- I love the articles about women's lives and experiencs.. Amy Sohn used to be kick ass sex writer for a free paper here years ago. More of her and her new struggles. So for those of you who have yet to procreate and those of you who never will: some of us have and find journalism about it funny and validating.

But I agree- after the election, Salon was lost. I hate the way everything looks and the stupid blue... AGH!

Nevermind.

It's over.

I can't ever imagine how salon will be relevant again. Unless Jeb runs.