22 4th Street, 16th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 415/645-9204
or
Salon.com
126 Fifth Avenue, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212/549-3280
Since its inception in 1995 as a saucier, Internet-based version of a serious news outlet Salon.com has rarely wavered in its focus. And even in the past year, despite a
weakened economy and the demise of many Internet media, Salon has remained relatively strong.
The basic rules for PR pros targeting the site's intellectually elite readers haven't changed much since PRN checked in with the editors in January - but Entertainment Editor
Bill Wyman and New York Editorial Director/Book Editor Laura Miller offer fresh tips for communicators looking to reach the site's 3.6 million unique visitors.
Content
Salon combines typical, newspaper-style features, with edgier pieces that might appear on less newsy Web sites.
Wyman says stories in Salon.com's A&E section are unique because "we try to be knowing without being glib, unaligned with anything but good thinking and good writing."
The content in the Book section is definitely not geared at the Oprah's Book Club set. Lately, it has featured a slew of current-event-based, Middle Eastern book reviews, such
as Miller's review of "The Holy Warrior," a book about Osama bin Laden. Miller is emphatic about what genres Salon.com will not cover.
Pitch Tips
We said it before and we'll say it again: Telephoning or faxing is bad. "We automatically rule out anything pitched in either way," Miller says.
Wyman agrees. Email contact information is made so easily available in order to discourage any other type of story-pitching. Wyman's Arts & Entertainment section, however,
is more open than most to pitches from PR pros.
For the Book section, don't send the latest title. It's a waste of postage. Miller recommends first sending an email that explains what's new and provocative about a particular
book in the first paragraph. "We'll request a copy if we're interested," Miller says. "Pitches should show some knowledge of what we cover, too."
Comments
Take note: The San Francisco office is the main office. The New York office is smaller and only Salon's books coverage is edited out of that location.
"Virtually everything we do is writer-generated," Wyman says. "We don't have a large staff and don't really have a charter to cover anything, so what we do cover generally
involves a particular writer being all [heated up] about something."
If you can get a Salon editor "heated up," however, it's a chance to reach some of the most lucrative Net surfers out there: the average household income of the Salon.com
reader is $84,024. According to the editors, an estimated 53 percent of those readers are visiting Salon to stimulate new ideas, while 75 percent visit for entertainment.
Contacts
Bill Wyman
Arts & Entertainment Editor
[email protected]
Joyce Millman
TV critic
[email protected]
Michael Sragow
Film critic
[email protected]
In the New York Office:
Jeff Stark
A&E associate editor
[email protected]
Stephanie Zacharek
A&E staff writer
[email protected]
Andrew O'Hehir
Film critic
[email protected]
Charles Taylor
Film critic
[email protected]
Laura Miller
Editor (Books)
[email protected]
Suzy Hansen
Assistant Editor (Books)
[email protected]