We asked designer Kelly Frankeny to create a news tabloid as imagined by Coco Chanel. Frankeny -- a globetrotting designer who is often dropping into beleaguered democracies in Africa and Latin America to work her wonders for embattled newspapers – responded to our challenge with a sophisticated and dynamic design. A brilliant and sassy blond Texan, she has created a new Salon as big as her personality. And yes, while invoking the brassy urgency of a news tabloid, the new design also conveys the elegance of the House of Chanel. Both Frankeny and the new Salon know how to use red lipstick and a simple black dress for maximum effect.

To fuel Salon’s explosive growth – Salon’s audience has soared to 7.7 million monthly unique visitors, up 30 percent over 2011 – our redesign provides more intuitive navigation and deeper social integration to optimize the site for Salon’s vibrant community.

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To participate in upcoming Salon webcasts with staff and friends, join the Salon Core community.

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Quincy recently hosted an online conversation on the epidemic of violence against young black men. Here is the full video of that discussion:

To participate in Salon's webcasts with staff and friends, join the Salon Core community.

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My oncologist says that whoever came up with the phrase "the gift of cancer" has the worst taste in gifts she's ever heard of. But though it's not exactly a set of car keys under the seat, cancer has, for the past year and a half, been the gift I've been given. And from an initial malignant diagnosis of melanoma through surgery through a Stage 4 rediagnosis through a last-ditch, Phase 1 clinical trial to a recovery that has stunned the research community, I've shared this adventure with the readers of Salon. And along the way, you've given so much in return. You've told me your own experiences with illness, with the healthcare system, with grief and frustration, and with the ways a shattering experience -- either your own or that of someone you love -- can turn life around. Sometimes even for the better. So it was a unique privilege to get to talk to a few of you recently for a Salon webcast, and answer your questions on life here in Cancer Town. For those of you who couldn't make it live, videos of the full webcast are posted below.

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Salon Core is a crucial pillar of our business model, but it’s also at the heart of our philosophy. We’re proud that Salon has survived for 17 years (which equals an eon in “Web years”) through the support of readers like you who value our journalistic mission and outspoken writers. We know that times are tough, but your funding supports our ability to challenge the forces that have made life so difficult for working people, so consider your Salon Core membership an investment.

Plus, you get some great benefits upon registration, which makes this sale price an even better deal. For the price of a couple of movie tickets you can support independent journalism, get access to our webcasts and events, and pick up a bunch of goodies and benefits. Please consider joining Salon Core today.

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For a long time now, as I've been chronicling my experience with Stage 4 cancer and life in a Phase 1 clinical trial, you've been right there with me.   You've been there from my harrowing initial diagnosis to my recent, thrilling remission. And along the way, as I've written about the trauma of surgery and the reasons people hide their illnesses,  you've emailed and tweeted and told me your own amazing stories. I am so honored to be part of this conversation, and so grateful for your participation in it.

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With the rise of Web 2.0 and social media, the idea of a website providing a hub for conversation is no longer unique, but we at Salon still view this as part of our mission. You may have noticed a growing number of banners on our site lately promoting webcasts. This burgeoning schedule is part of an effort to provide opportunities for Salon readers to connect with writers and each other.

For those of  you who haven’t joined one yet, the format of these webcasts is straightforward: They’re essentially a video chat where participants can submit questions and comments to the “host(s)” — the writer — in real time, and there is also a live-chat window embedded into the webcast so viewers can interact with each other throughout the event.

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It was fun. But now it's time to get serious.

Salon needs your money. It's $45 for a Salon Core membership. You need the membership to join the webcast.

$45 just to see me fidget and stare blankly into the camera? Maybe not.

But $45 to make sure Salon stays alive and independent? I'd do that.

Stim did. And now? 20 percent happier! GUARANTEED!

See you April 19 for the next "Since You Asked" Live Webcast.

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This great work is possible thanks to those of you who have supported Salon and become members of Salon Core, our membership program (read more about it here). To the rest of you: If the work Glenn does is important to you, I hope you’ll join, too. Great work needs great supporters. And the Core perks are pretty cool, too.

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Fluke tried to testify on behalf of President Obama's contraception coverage requirements at Rep. Darrell Issa's Inquisition; excuse me, his hearing on the regulations, which featured an all-male panel to lead off. But she was denied permission, on the grounds that Issa was interested in threats to religious liberty, not women's lives. That was bad enough. After the GOP congressman shut her down, she told her story to House Democrats as well as journalists. Limbaugh called her a "slut" and a "prostitute," and promised to buy Fluke and Georgetown women "as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want. We are paying her for having sex. We are getting screwed. So Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I'll tell you what it is: We want you to post the videos online, so we can all watch."

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Beyond your financial support, your comments are a big part of what makes our site so engaging. We appreciate that many in the Salon community are interested in having genuine conversations. At their best, these conversations are witty, insightful and truly expand on the concepts explored in the article to which they are responding. The readers who comment on Glenn Greenwald’s columns, for example, often submit sources and content that are included in Glenn’s signature “updates.”

Salon was one of the first Web-only news sites and since we launched at the dawn of the digital era, we have recognized the significance of intelligent interaction in online “town squares.” This is why we take your feedback about problems with the functionality of our comments section seriously and why we’re making this our top priority.

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Salon members were once the secret behind our website's success. At one point, nearly 100,000 people signed up as paying Salon subscribers. This amazing achievement – at a time when the absurd mantra "information wants to be free" held sway – helped stabilize Salon as dozens of other worthy websites were disappearing into Internet history.

In recent years, Salon unfortunately allowed its subscription program to nearly wither away, through lack of attention. But today we're relaunching our new, robust subscription program – Salon Core – with a new array of benefits and special community events. And once more we're calling on our readers to support Salon's unique brand of independent journalism.

These days, the only people who still believe in the information-should-be free business model are the media moguls who made a fortune by not paying their freelance workers or by stealing the hard labor of other newsrooms.

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What happens when your 99 weeks of unemployment benefits expire and you still haven’t been able to find a job? Academy Award nominee Immy Humes explores this question in Salon’s upcoming video series premiering Jan. 24.

Humes follows “99ers” in 
“F*cked: The United States of Unemployment,” a documentary about the long-term unemployed and their struggle to survive and fight back.

“The mystery of our day is why 30 million Americans remain so invisible, and silent, after so long a time in the hell of unemployment,” said Humes, a filmmaker who has faced the grim reality of unemployment herself. “This series gives a voice to these people who are so often ignored as they hunt for jobs, organize to fight economic injustice, and deal with the stigma of being out of work.”

“F**cked” follows a diverse group of New York City-area 99ers from food pantries to marches to tense confrontations at Occupy Wall Street, tracing the roller-coaster lives of those desperately struggling to survive in the worst economy since the 1930s.

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How should the 99 percent occupy America? Where does the movement go from here?

On Thursday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., Salon will convene a public forum on the future of the Occupy protests. The event will be held at the Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission Street, San Francisco.

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Last night in San Francisco I had the pleasure of meeting Glenn Greenwald in person for the first time and interviewing him about our ailing democracy, the occupy movement and the "too big to jail" phenomenon. (Glenn's new book, "With Liberty and Justice for Some" has just been published.) The room was packed with Glenn's fans, and he lit the place up with his razor-sharp responses to my questions — as anyone who reads his column would expect. In the clip above, he's answering my question about the servitude of our media to the nation's elite class.

Fora.TV was there filming for us, and the whole interview is now available online.

(Salon Core members, check the Core page for a coupon code to watch for free.)

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Salon doesn't just feel different. It is different. Along with this speedy new publishing platform, we're taking a bolder editorial direction. We're doing more of the deep, provocative reporting that you, our readers, have asked us for – the kind that is pursued less and less in the media. Salon is making a stronger commitment to do what we've always done best: speak the uncomfortable truths, and uncover the stories that those in power want to keep hidden.

Like a lot of our online peers, we've toyed with the shorter-faster-punchier approach in recent years, chronicling what mattered with a speed that matched readers' habits, cheerfully grazing on Twitter sprouts or Tumblr bonbons. We'll continue to be fast when it matters. But we know our readers want more than aggregated cheat sheets; they don't want to just seem smarter, they want to be smarter. So we're increasing our deep dives into the important and fascinating stories of our time, and offering more investigative reports that require time and care to develop. We're plunging into this deep and passionate journalism because we know that these critical times (captured well here by our returning founder David Talbot) demand it.

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We hope this will mean a big enhancement for Salon readers. Here's a list of a few critical changes:

• New comments section: Commenters now will have to register either through Facebook, Google or the new Core membership. (Core members, like Premium members before them, will have a special emblem near their names.) If you have an old Salon Letters account, the next time you attempt to comment you'll be asked to log in via Facebook, Google or Salon Core (aka Premium). The process will enable you to link this new login to your old Letters account so your comment history will remain intact. We will also more aggressively monitor our comments section, and remove inappropriate comments.

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Now, six years after leaving Salon, I've decided to return as CEO, because I think the country needs a fighting, independent media more than ever.

Americans are deeply worried and dispirited. Three years ago, as the country slid into a bottomless recession, we rallied around a presidential candidate who promised real change, only to see him fall captive to the same forces of greed and endless war that have brought us to ruin. The alternatives presented by the Republican Party would only accelerate this national decline. We're faced on the one side by a well-meaning but ineffectual leader who has waited far too late in his presidency to rally the people around the powerful themes of jobs and economic justice -- and on the other side by GOP leaders who are competing to see how quickly they can dismantle the last decent vestiges of public life in America.

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The story's art clumsily, hilariously, seems to include Fox News in its loser lineup (I like to imagine it as the subversive handiwork of a pissed-off graphic designer):

The write-up has Salon shedding readers like scales from Roger Ailes' backside -- "losing about 1 million regular visitors over the past year, a 37 percent decline." The fizzling started "almost immediately last November when the main editor, Joan Walsh, took a back-seat to write a new book." Fox reports that we're "ad-heavy" (not actually a bad thing for a site relying on ad revenue, by the way) and that we have a hard time competing with the "classier" New Yorker. 

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