You name 'em, Salon has a deal with 'em as it makes a mad dash to spread its sex-sprinkled news and entertainment reviews content all over Onlinelandia. The cybermagazine, which has been reportedly burning through investment capital at a fast clip, announced a series of distribution deals Thursday with America Online, Netscape, WebTV, PointCast, CNET, Match.com, and Desktop News.
While the zine has seen its page views grow by 19 percent monthly since January, and is expecting to hit 6 million page views this month - everyone knows it's tough to make a buck on new media. So in an ideal world those deals would be geared toward generating more cash.
But Marc Wernick, Salon's vice president of marketing and business development, said "most of these aren't revenue shares, but opportunities to tease our content," and reach new audiences. By getting its stuff out on so many different distribution channels, Salon is apparently counting on significantly raising page views and corresponding advertising sales.
AOL will carry Salon articles on its hip, new "Influence Channel," which apparently failed to launch as planned on Thursday afternoon. Netscape will make the magazine's content available through its Inbox Direct program, while WebTV and PointCast will put stories on specific channels.
Wernick wouldn't talk about the financial arrangement with AOL, but did say that the deal with Match.com - a paid-membership online dating service - would be the only revenue-sharing model among the rash of deals. "Sections of our site get a 70 percent single, 50 percent female" audience, said Wernick - just what Match.com is looking for. Salon will get a cut of fees paid by new members who join Match.com through a link on Salon, and then share ad revenues from a co-branded site.
