I’ve been a member of The Well for about 6 years (whoa, time flies). I was a bit surprised to see that Salon is going to sell it off. Here is the stated reason for the sale:

Hambrecht said that Salon intends to shift from something akin to a print magazine with articles posted online to a more interactive Web site. “Salon would like to focus on our base brand rather than divert our attention,” she said.

So, they want to be more interactive and their first step is to sell off their community service. Interesting move. Not logical, but interesting. I would guess the real reason is that they are tired of dealing with all the cranky members who have been starved for any attention from the corporate parent. I haven’t checked in to the Well for a few days since I was traveling. I’m sure there are about 5,000 posts to catch up on this already.