One of world’s first social networking sites ‘The Well’ up for sale

Salon Media Group is looking to sell The Well, one of the first online social communities founded in 1985. 

Salon Media Group, is seeking to sell not only the property, but also the domain name. 

According to the New York daily News, The Well, or Whole Earth Electronic Link, was first started by ‘Whole Earth Catalog’ editor Stewart Brand and former Google.org director Larry Brilliant as a pay-for dial-up bulletin board system in 1985. 

But the Internet publishing company announced this summer that it wants to break its ties with the website. 

It said that it had decided to “narrow the company focus” and laid off the website’s entire staff. 

“As other online communities and social networks emerged over the years, The Well''s subscriber base dwindled to 2,693, which did not bear financial promise,” the company explained in its June filing. 

According to the report, this is not the first time Salon has tried to sell off The Well. 

In 2005, the company announced that it was looking to sell the online community, but then backtracked in 2006 when it could not find a "suitable purchaser."

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