MarCom Maven

An interesting revelation from Salon.com.  It seems that subscribers contribute less to the bottom-line than ads. I don’t find this news all that intriguing, except the model appears to be a bit off. Subscribers pay for the privilege of not seeing ads.

So, if I’m an advertiser, I pay for the privilege of putting my product or service in front of the faces of a bunch of cheapskates?  I don’t get to market to the people who are willing to fork out the $45 per year. Hmm, so much for adding value to the media buy. 

Now, if we were talking about some other  site, I really wouldn’t be concerned. But this is Salon.com, one of the first sites to offer truly worthwhile content. While everyone else was slapping their brochures and print copy onto the Web, Salon.com generated interesting, Web-specific content. It has always been smart, informative and content-rich.

Unfortunately, the site isn’t quite as smart about how it treats its advertisers.  Salon.com's advertisers are  obviously its bread and butter – the numbers don’t lie. Seems it should practice a little savvy marketing and give the advertisers more value for the dollars they’re willing to spend.