Kerry Lauerman's Open Salon Blog

Quick survey . . .

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:12:32 -0500

We tried a little experiment to cut down on the spam this week, and from my vantage point -- catching up on my Open reading, including many pioneers who seem to have returned (Hi K.M., Sandra!) -- it seems much better. Others? Or have they managed to find their way into other areas of the site I'm missing?

Merry, happy, etc.

UPDATED: Better, faster, stronger

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:09:05 -0400

Hey folks,

About a month ago, I posted somewhat cryptically here that a major improvement lurked on the horizon -- and it has (mostly) arrived. We've migrated Salon proper onto a new platform (WordPress), giving Open Salon vastly more database space to roam. It should make Open a vastly faster site.

I don't expect huge thanks or kudos -- I desperately wanted to improve the site eons ago (or at least a year ago). But we're a small company with a small tech staff and big ambitions -- and it simply took more time than expected. Your patience through a really rough period is both appreciated and admired.

I'm also thrilled that Gail Williams has come aboard to help manage and improve Open, freeing up Emily to focus on her editor duties. They are an awesome team.

Eventually, we'll roll Open into WordPress as well, but for now, the pure usability of the site should make a serious leap forward. As for Salon proper -- I hope it will be as swift and easy to navigate as Open in the very near future, after the migration pains have subsided.

UPDATE: No sooner did I post this than we reverted Salon proper back to the database. So slowness will be intermittent until the transition occurs.

UPDATE 2: (Saturday, 6:43 a.m.): Just woke up to find the transition finally made, and the site supremely faster. Here's hoping it stays that way.

Just a quick hello . . .

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:08:01 -0400

...and the promise of more frequent appearances in the future.

The fortitude of Open bloggers to put up with our wheezing and whirling and battered servers is one of the most impressive feats on the Internet. I should have news, not too far off, that will hopefully offer some sitewide cheer.

More soon.

Salon in review: 6 million member March

Mon, 4 Apr 2011 11:04:10 -0400

For the first time that I can recall (and my memory stretches past a decade) Salon burst past the 6 million number for monthly unique visitors to the site, according to Google analytics (6.308 million, to be exact). Pretty cool. It continues a pretty satisfying three-month climb in 2011 (I've written about February and January).

There are a few key points that are particularly encouraging. For one, we didn't really have any huge, viral success stories in March (I usually think of any post above 200,000 PVs as viral -- with the exception of our slideshows, but I'll get to that). Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't turn down a viral sensation or a huge breaking news story. We strive for them, we're willing to pay top dollar for them. But I think it's a lot healthier that we're showing growth without any outliers that otherwise muddle the picture.

Ironically, our year-over-year growth is (compared to previous months) a relatively modest 9 percent bump. But that's very much a result of an outstanding March 2010 -- our biggest month of the year -- that was compounded by three giant viral success (led by the huge talker, Hipsters on food stamps; and a little Oscar scoop I even contributed to the site). Without those? A fine month -- but I'll take our 2011 success any day. Here's a 2010-2011 comparison:

Our five biggest posts from March were:

Paglia on Taylor: "A luscious, opulent, ripe fruit!"129,927
Bringing up the rear 103,484
I preached against homosexuality, but I was wrong 91,725
Snapshots from a rock 'n' roll marriage 85,313
What happens when computers stop shrinking? 78,608

But back to those slideshows. We love them. You love them. We do a fair amount of them. But we really try to make them worth your while (you won't see side-boob-only slideshows on Salon) and choose subjects that lend themselves to particularly effective slideshow treatment. Our TV guy, Matt Zoller Seitz, does this as well as anyone on the Web, with is Friday Night Seitz feature. These regularly get over 200,000 PVs, but I don't include slideshows in our big post counts. Why? Because there are multiple clicks on slideshows, whereas with most posts, there's only one -- it seems a little like comparing apples to oranges. But his slideshows are consistently marvelous, popular and he deserves a shoutout.

As does Justin Elliott, our NY-based War Room reporter, who manages to find fresh, illuminating ways into stories that packs of his fellow reporters are also chasing. In a big news month, Justin wrote urgent, essential stories about the post-Japan tsunami nuclear threat, and shrewdly raised critical questions about our war in Libya -- including the reluctance to call it a war, our arming of the Gadhafi army, and our history of blowback over there. That barely begins to capture what Justin pulled off in March. Dazzling.

On a sadder note, Francis Lam, our food impresario, has decided to leave Salon for an impressive-sounding new job over at the Gilt Groupe. We'll miss him dearly -- he's as lovely a guy as he is a writer, which for those of you who regularly read him know is tough to imagine.

Until next month!

Quick notes on another strong month

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:03:33 -0500

Just a quick report on February's traffic on Salon.

Monthly unique visitors (MUVs) hit 5.3 million, the second month in a row over 5 million, and charting a 24 percent increase over February 2010. Pretty good. We're off to a strong March already, and have a few features planned that we're eager to unveil . . . stay tuned.

But first, in the next few days, Emily is going to post a an updated Open blogger guide, for those of you who want to see their posts migrate quickly to Salon, or linked to from our cover. We want to do a lot more linking moving forward -- it's a way of tapping into the great resource that Open has become, and it's also way of driving a lot more traffic (and Adsense revenue) your way. I look forward to seeing what you think of Emily's post.

Finally, our five biggest posts from February 2010. (I'm particularly fond of the range here):

What not to say about Lara Logan 209,845
Middle-earth according to Mordor 190,781
The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters 162,185
How 480 characters unraveled my career 113,679
James Franco's Oscars of apathy 88,982