To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of Salon’s death are greatly exaggerated. At least that’s what Salon CEO Michael O’Donnell claims.

" Our friends in the press have taken their knives out again, predicting Salon’s demise, " O’Donnell said in a letter to Jim Romenesko’s MediaNews, posted Friday, June 28. O’Donnell’s gripe was over a June 26 Reuters news-service item that the Web ’zine was staggering under the weight of an accumulated deficit of $76.6 million. Reuters reporter Andrea Orr said the cash-strapped, seven-year-old company might have to shut down if it failed to raise needed revenue. " The Reuters reporter (who has made so many mistakes covering Salon over the years we’ve lost count) actually made up a quote from us, saying ‘the company said the end could be near.’ She never talked to us and of course ‘the company’ said nothing of the kind, " wrote O’Donnell. " We have actually invested approximately $55 million in cash since we started Salon.... [T]his is not debt. New magazine or media property launches often incur losses for some period of time during their startup phases. "

The next day, the Associated Press reported that the online magazine was " down to its last $1.5 million in cash " and that the company’s auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, had " substantial doubt " as to whether the magazine would last.

Reports of financial woes have been routine for Salon since its launch in 1995. Best known for such provocative columnists as Camille Paglia and David Horowitz and for its lively coverage of politics, technology, the arts, and sex, the highly regarded news-and-culture Web site quickly became a must-read for media junkies. It earned high marks for its coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and for its unsparing look at the disputed election and early presidency of George W. Bush.

Salon fanned the financial-disaster-rumor flames just last year when it laid off 13 of some 150 employees — including Camille Peri, the wife of Salon editor and founder David Talbot — which hurt the site’s coverage of media, books, and travel. But such cost-cutting measures are nothing new for many dot-coms, which continue to struggle amid competition and in an uncertain economy. " The fact is, Salon has been a survivor and that bothers many people in the media — especially those who wish we’d just fade away or collapse all together, " O’Donnell concluded.

For those of us who've come to rely on Salon, let’s hope he’s right.