Salon, one of the internet's oldest publications, announces it is shutting down after 31 years

Salon, the online news and culture publication founded in San Francisco in 1995, announced Thursday that it is closing after nearly 31 years, saying its publishing model is no longer sustainable. In a farewell post titled "Goodbye from Salon," the outlet said the business realities of independent digital journalism had changed profoundly. Deadline reported the site would go dark later that day. Salon launched on Nov. 20, 1995, after a strike at the San Francisco Examiner, when editor David Talbot began exploring the internet's publishing potential. He was joined by co-founders Gary Kamiya, Andrew Ross, Mignon Khargie, Scott Rosenberg and Laura Miller. Salon later moved most of its editorial staff to New York City, and a 2011 Columbia Journalism Review piece described it as the oldest general interest publication on the internet. Writers over the years included Jake Tapper, Glenn Greenwald, Rebecca Traister and Alex Pareene, and its editors included Talbot, Joan Walsh and outgoing editor Joseph Neese. The closure followed years of newsroom downsizing and widespread media cuts tied to technology changes and a volatile advertising market.

The Guardian, representing the left, leads with Salon's own words, quoting the statement about the end of "something that has meant so much to so many people." It stresses the site's history, including the founding, the move to New York and the Columbia Journalism Review description, and it does not apply an ideological label in its opening. The New York Post, on the right, quotes the same letter but headlines Salon as a "lefty" site and calls it left-leaning. It adds the list of famous bylines and editors, the downsizing and industry-wide cuts. Breitbart's Nolte item, only an excerpt of which was available, calls Salon "far-left" in both headline and text and gives no further detail. Both sides agree on the 31 years, the Thursday timing and the quoted statement. They differ mainly in labeling and in the Guardian's focus on legacy versus the Post's focus on industry decline. Deadline, the independent source, adds the founding story and the same-day shutdown.