I was reading Salon back since the ‘90s, when they were actually paying for name writers (tho honestly I can only remember Paglia off the top of my head). Got a letter to the editor run once, which I regret - less a matter of having anything useful or interesting to contribute than knowing the right clever words to get published. Even got a subscription when they went paywall, and occasionally looked in even during the silly times of the Bush years. Haven’t really checked in ages, though.

I see Slate’s following the same road now - ads mixed in (or taking over) above the fold, adding subscriber-exclusive content, more liberal sass and outrage clickbait (Mark Joseph Stern, alas, is probably a pretty good pickup for this strategy, writing his stories to polarize the readership into being either outraged at “them” or outraged at him). Kind of a shame, as ridiculous as the #slatepitchy Kaus/Shafer/Kinsley years could get there was regularly good, worthwhile stuff in there.

I guess decent webmag journalistishism as a way to make money is over on the internet (I mean, it never really got going in the first place, but there was a dream, and startup funding), and it’s only going to survive as a way to spend money. The New Republic’s occasionally worthwhile since Hughes picked it up from Peretz, even if you have to keep opening private browsing windows to get around the monthly free article limit (and no, I don’t feel remotely guilty for this, any more than I did doing my childhood magazine reading at the library). PandoDaily’s still running off VC, and thank god someone’s still commissioning The War Nerd and the other Exiled guys, hopefully when it never pays off Andreessen will just fund them out of pocket.