About David Talbot: David Talbot is an American progressive journalist, author and media entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO and editor-in-chief of one of the first web magazines, Salon.com.
I came at age in the '60s, and initially my hopes and dreams were invested in politics and the movements of the time - the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement. I worked on Bobby Kennedy's campaign for president as a teenager in California an...
People sort of take it for granted, but the more you see of the media world the more you appreciate a paper like the Times where its family continues to invest in editorial quality and I think it's the truly is the best paper in the world.
I think there is a difference between Slate and Salon. I think we both serve important functions on the Internet. As more and more Websites disappear, I'm thankful Slate is still around because it makes things less lonely.
I knew I wanted to be a journalist ever since I was a teenager. While it is interesting and gratifying to be on the business side and to see how that all works, the main reason I kept a business role here was to protect the editorial integrity of Sal...
A lot of my idealism was frustrated by the end of the '60s because of the way things went with the assassinations and the sense that the political establishment was so fixed in its ways you couldn't change anything.
After Watergate, which happened when I was in college, I became increasingly inspired by journalism as a way to change the world. It sounds corny, but to wake the public up, to serve a higher cause.
Do I regret taking the company public? Yes and no. Yes, because it put us under enormous pressure for a young company to go public at that point in its history, something you never could have done in the old days.
I have no regrets about launching Salon. For the life of me, I can't imagine doing anything else.
My favorite thing is still journalism. I'm almost 50. This has been my life ever since I was in college.
Most Sunday magazines, with the New York Times as an exception, are kind of sleepy, weekend service vehicles to move living room products.
Journalism is not just a cause, it's also a wacky profession.
They may be a little more high brow than we are.
Even more important maybe, or equally more important at least, is they don't have to scrap for a living.
I don't think we would still be here if we hadn't gone public.
There are not that many new media brands you can say that about nowadays.
I don't think Fox News or Rush Limbaugh need Clinton it turns out. I think there's a hunger out there for - whether it's on the left or right - a more lively and provocative type of political journalism. I think Salon and Fox on the other side have b...
When you're kept by a patron you don't have to duke it out in the media marketplace for dollars and for readers. In some ways that's a blessing because it takes a lot of pressure off you.
While I'm critical to the Bush presidency, it's been enormously beneficial for Salon because we're seen as kind of an aggressive watchdog on the Bush White House. Particularly since Florida, our readership hit a whole new level, and we held onto thos...
I think we're really getting it right the last few months and hopefully we'll get better and better at it.
I think we've broken story after story that the rest of the media refused to break even when they had the story because they were scared of the story, or they just didn't think it was appropriate.
