Salon was first published in 1995. Salon’s story reflects the difficulties in creating a profitable original, professionally produced media content over the Internet. In April 1999, Salon purchased the remarkable virtual community, WELL, gaining the attention of international media. Then, on 22 June 1999, Salon.com began trading on NASDAQ. While speculation of the dot-com had not yet reached its peak at that time, Salon.com performance was mediocre, reflecting investor skepticism about its business model and the model used to auction Dutchman made public. On 25 April 2001, Salon launched Salon Premium, a pay section with content by subscription. Salon Premium has over 130,000 subscribers and staved off discontinuation of services. Such skepticism was soon confirmed when Salon announced the increasing total losses.On 13 November 2002, the company announced it had accumulated losses of cash and other means of 80 million. In February 2003 it was having difficulty paying your rent, and appealed for donations made to keep the company running. On October 9, 2003, Michael O’Donnell, CEO and president of Salon Media Group, said he was leaving the company after seven years because it was “time for a change.” When he left, Salon.com had accrued 83.6 million in losses since its inception, and its stock traded for 5 on the OTC Bulletin Board. David Talbot, Salon’s president and or in chief at the time, became the new executive director. Elizabeth “Betsy” Hambrecht, Salon’s chief financial officer then became the president. From spring 2007, Salon was making small quarterly profit, benefiting from a resurgent market for online advertising business and a set of subscriptions.