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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, APRIL 5, 1999 | Salon Internet Inc. announces today that Salon Magazine has changed its name to Salon.com and transformed its online content offerings into a network of 10 newly redesigned Web sites. The sites contain new features including:

Two new content sites -- Salon People and Salon Health & Sex
- Frequent site updates throughout the day, as well as a new Salon Weekend package
-A new Web address at www.salon.com (www.salonmagazine.com will continue to function as well)
-A site-wide redesign, with enhanced navigation and a new look
-A technical upgrade, with the creation of a custom publishing-software system and adoption of a Linux/Apache Web server platform
-A national "Salon...Makes You Think" advertising campaign to promote the new Salon network

Beginning April 5, the 10 sites will include the newly launched Salon People and Salon Health & Sex sites, as well as Salon Arts & Entertainment, Salon Books, Salon Comics, Salon Media, Salon Mothers Who Think, Salon News, Salon Technology and Salon Travel. Salon Health & Sex will cover a wide range of issues, from biomedical ethics to alternative medicine and fitness. Salon People will take a discerning and sometimes critical look at celebrity and the culture that surrounds and supports it.

Also starting today, Salon's once-a-day publishing cycle will be replaced by a more frequent publishing schedule, particularly in the News, Arts & Entertainment and Technology sites. The new Salon Weekend package, to be posted Saturdays, will emphasize Travel content, as well as fresh News, People and Technology material -- plus Urge, Salon's weekly look at sex and relationships.

Says David Talbot, CEO and editor in chief, "Salon began three and a half years ago as an online magazine, but the Web is a 24-hour-a-day medium, and the word magazine no longer describes what we are today. Our new network of sites gives our readers the more timely news and information they expect from this medium while allowing us to continue to publish the longer, in-depth pieces we're known for."

The new Salon.com site design is the product of many months' work by Salon's design team, led by Mignon Khargie, one of Salon's founders and vice president of design, and Chad Dickerson, vice president of technology. Based on user testing, reader feedback and improved technical capacity, the design adds new home pages for each of Salon's 10 sites, and provides enhancements designed to make Salon easier to read, navigate and print.

Says Mignon Khargie, "We wanted to maintain the clean design and fast downloads that our readers expect from us while also giving a better sense of the depth and frequency of the expanded sites."

To provide new services to users and build a more robust publishing environment, Salon.com has moved its Web servers from Windows NT to a customized version of Linux paired with the Apache Web server. Combined with Salon.com's new, custom-developed, database-driven publishing platform, the new technology will allow Salon.com to offer users new delivery options, including easier, customizable printing and e-mail services. The new custom publishing system will also allow Salon to better syndicate content to portals and other sites.

Says Chad Dickerson, vice-president of technology, "Salon keeps posting more and more new content every day. With our new publishing and Web serving infrastructure, centered around proven free software like Linux, Apache and Perl, our users will be able to access our content and our archives much more easily."

In addition, Salon hired San Francisco advertising agency Odiorne, Wilde, Narraway & Partners to launch a national advertising campaign based on the slogan "Salon...Makes You Think." The campaign will feature print, radio, outdoor and online spots, featuring excerpts from Salon's articles.

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