Matthew Yglesias points to an interview in which O.G. blogger Mickey Kaus says that, until recently Slate magazine paid him “in the mid-90s.” As Yglesias points out even $80,000 a year is a lot to be paid to write 3-4 blog entries per week. I’m torn between two possibilities:
1. It’s the old-boy’s network. Kaus is friends with Michael Kinsley etc. and they hired him on at a big salary because that’s what friends are for.
2. Kaus really is worth it: some analysis of hits reveals that he’s actually bringing in $80,000 worth of readers each year.
I guess #2 is probably correct–Slate is a web-business, after all. I’m reminded of the dictum that the most effective strategy for being a successful blogger is to have started blogging before the end of 2003. (Before that point, the blogosphere was small enough that everybody linked to everybody else.)
The other thing that Yglesias’s note made me realize was how much of a bubble I live in. $80,000 sounds like so little that I wondered where Kaus gets the rest of his income. Really, though, lots of people are doing just fine on less than $80/year. Kaus actually wrote a book many years ago arguing that, rather than aiming for equality of incomes, we should aim for a society in which you can live comfortably without a lot of money.