Salon Media Gets $800,000 Infusion; Series With Rolling Stone Is Planned

Salon Media Group Inc. said Thursday that it received an $800,000 infusion and would collaborate with Rolling Stone magazine on a series of investigative stories about the 2004 presidential election.

Adobe Systems Inc. founder John Warnock, a Salon board member and longtime funder of the online magazine, contributed $600,000 in the latest round. Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner’s Wenner Media contributed $200,000, said David Talbot, Salon’s founder, chief executive and editor in chief.

Under their collaboration agreement, Salon and Rolling Stone will turn out six or more investigative pieces about the Bush administration and the presidential campaign. The stories will appear in the magazines’ online editions.

Salon has struggled to make a profit since Internet banner advertising collapsed with the dot-com bust about three years ago.

In the time since, the independent Web magazine has added 74,000 subscribers at a rate of $35 per year.

Talbot said Salon’s losses are diminishing as it makes progress toward its goal of becoming profitable.

The online magazine also is experimenting with Google Inc.’s contextual ad program that scours content for keywords tied to advertisements that are written in the form of links to websites.