Salon Replaces its CEO; Hires Veteran Gingras

Normally as I sift through each day's 8-Ks, 10-Q's Form 4's and all the other "paperwork" media companies file routinely with the SEC, most of the stuff, to be honest, makes my eyes glaze over.

But today's batch included a stunner: Senior management turnover at Salon.
Elizabeth Hambrecht, daughter of one of Salon's largest and most loyal investors, Bill Hambrecht, is out, replaced by Silicon Valley veteran executive Richard Gingras, effective immediately. Gingras was until recently a senior advisor to Google, previously CEO of Goodmail, and a former exec at Apple and at Excite@Home (where he was briefly my boss.)

Note: He's also a close friend -- though not so close as to have tipped me to this news! ;)
Gingras and Salon go back to the web magazine's beginnings, when he ponied up the first $50,000 or so in funding from a fund he controlled at Apple. I also was working with Salon's founders as a consultant back then (in the fall of 1995) and one of the items Gingras supplied us with was a printer that for years afterwards was referred simply by his last name.

He's a terrific visionary and a good hands-on boss, and most importantly one of the smartest people Salon could turn to if the company is to turn its fortunes around. As I reported recently, the company has been losing money faster than a sinking ship takes on water, so a turnaround is definitely in order.

Through all of the years and management changes, Salon consistently delivers quality content, and I'm sure that will not be changing. So, here's one blogger wishing the new team success. Long live Salon!