Salon.com open to merger to staunch red ink

Salon.com, the 15-year-old news site, has let it be known that it is open to a merger. The development highlights just how difficult it is for a free-standing news site without a media partner to be economically viable. Salon is said to have lost about $15 million, a third of that in the last year. Will the brand be enough that some other entity will want to take on all that debt? Hard to say.

I certainly hope that Salon will remain viable to keep on posting Glenn Greenwald's almost always invaluable material on civil liberties and secrecy -- although I'm pretty sure Glenn will ctch on elsewhere if Salon goes belly-up. Salon does have other good stuff (as well as some not-so-good), so that would be a pity.