Salon.com is still putting out quality articles, but I personally don’t think it’s worth $30/year. (I put up with their daily clickthrough advertising instead.) But my friend Dave e-mailed me about a much better deal…
Apparently, if you sign up for Salon Premium, you get 1 year subscriptions to Wired and US News & World Report. But if you don’t want the subscriptions, Wired will send you a $12 refund and US News will send you $25. So take both refunds, and earn $7 plus a free year of Salon. Or keep the Wired subscription, scoring you a year of Salon and Wired for only $5.
The original e-mail is below.
Ha. I think I told you that several weeks ago — in October or November — I renewed my Salon subscription for $30 for a year. This entitled me to free one-year subscriptions to Wired and US News (and maybe more — those are the only two I checked).
And I think I told you that a few weeks back I got a postcard from Wired saying “Your free 1-year subscription will begin shortly, but if for some reason you would prefer not to receive Wired, you are entitled to a $12 refund.”
So today, I got a card from US News that says, “As part of your membership in Salon Premium, you’re entitled to receive a 1-year, 53-issue subscription…. However, if for some reason, you would prefer not to receive U.S. News & World Report, please complete and sign this form … and you’ll receive a $25 refund.”
So go figure. Sign up for Salon for $30, and you *could* get $37 in refunds *plus* Salon for a year. No wonder they’re always on the verge of bankruptcy.
Personally, I think it’s worth the 30 beans, even without the magazine refunds. (But I may be biased.) In any case, I came out of my subscription with Wired, US News, and Esquire, which I would prefer to making $7 any day and a free online sub. I also got to send a subscription to a friend. Which made me look good. Even though I am not. And, of course, there are several subscription levels. You don’t have to sign up for the $30/year option.
Hmmm, it’s up to $35 a year now … still up by a toonie.
Or, you could just visit http://premium.salon.com/daypass/index.jsp before reading Salon for free without subscribing…
… if you like reading online. I believe it’s worth the money.
“… if you like reading online. I believe it’s worth the money” for sure !!
$30 IS kinda expensive, I would have taken it if it was like $10 or something !
I have to admit that the free magazine subscriptions were the kicker for me to subscribe to Salon.com. US News, Wired, Granta, &c? Cool. Still, having subscribed, I feel much much better about reading the site’s great articles. Seriously, I formerly read the NYTimes print edition several times a week…and that’s a dollar a pop. As I read Salon more, I read NYTimes less. Now the couple bucks per week I was tossing to the newspaper dude has become the dozens of cents per week I toss to Salon. I’m supporting independent media! And I can still read the NYTimes on the web.