# Is Salon Magazine content worth $ 30.00 annually? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014 "2003-02-01T01:14:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/1 "2003-02-01T01:14:34Z")
I’ve always really liked Salon Magazine (for free) is it worth $ 30.00 for the complete content? Is this a deal or not? Any opinions from the SDMB literati? [www.salon.com](http://www.salon.com) ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/2 "2003-02-01T01:46:15Z")
Their thing where you can view a long ad and get free access for the day is the way to go. Especially since you can read all the back stories as well. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/3 "2003-02-01T01:55:22Z")
Feh, not for me. There are plenty of other news and op/ed sites I go to for free, and I don’t find \*Salon \* that good that I can afford to part with 30 smackers. I don’t blame them for charging; it’sjust that I am such a cheap btch. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/4 "2003-02-01T01:56:31Z")
[And I goddam HATE the “ins” and “del” keys on my new computer!!] ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesuch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesuch)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/5 "2003-02-01T02:48:18Z")
I was a faithful daily reader of Salon prior to their shift to a pay site and coughed up the thirty bucks for the first year. Since then the quality of the articles has plunged significantly and I didn’t renew when my scrip was up. I still look at the site daily but don’t find much worthwhile. The current articles have much less original reporting and tend more towards lightweight political/opinion pieces and media reviews. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/6 "2003-02-01T06:17:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Royal Nonesuch \* > \*\* > The current articles have much less original reporting and tend more towards lightweight political/opinion pieces and media reviews. \*\* Maybe it has changed, but I always looked at Salon as a mouthpiece and not a “news site”. And I first visited Salon about a year and half ago. ---
**Author:** ![SnugTheJoiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@SnugTheJoiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnugTheJoiner)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/7 "2003-02-01T08:13:15Z")
I always used to read SALON the same way that I read THE NEW YORKER. For the cartoons. $ 30.00 / year? Don’t make me larf. I’ll pretend to read the ad, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/8 "2003-02-01T08:42:33Z")
You can click through that four-page ad in less than 3 seconds if you’re good 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/9 "2003-02-01T11:16:08Z")
I love Salon. I’ve been a subscriber for two years now. I haven’t really noticed a drop-off in the quality either. If it wasn’t 5 in the morning I’d find a few links to articles that kept me coming back. 🙂 I’ll post 'em a bit later on. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/10 "2003-02-01T12:04:07Z")
Even after they went to pay, and it was obvious that they were trying to sell Salon by restricting access to sex-related stories. I eventually coughted up the money, because they often intrigued me with their subscriber content, even the stuff that didn’t have directly to do with ‘booty.’ With it I got the license to download MP3s of Dylan Thomas, which beats the shit out of the Dylan Thomas recordings I gleaned from what few Caedmon recordings I was able to glean from the collection of Vinyl recordings at my undergraduate school I also got a subsription to The Utne Reader, only now it’s called just Utne and it seems much more like a Pinko Lifestyle and Self-Affirmation Magazine than, as previously advertised, the best of the alternative press. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/11 "2003-02-01T12:44:57Z")
I tried the subscription for a month or two, and decided against continuing. Salon: You can be a pay site, or you can have annoying gobs of pop-up ads, but NOT BOTH. ---
**Author:** ![Fibonacci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Fibonacci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibonacci)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salon-magazine-content-worth-30-00-annually/152014/12 "2003-02-01T14:41:22Z")
I’m quite happy with Salon in my second year of subscription. I read it every day (it’s my home page) and am constantly amazed at the wide range of articles and content. I will continue to subscribe to do what little I can to keep it alive. Yes, it’s worth it to me. YMMV