There’s an article in the New York Times this morning about the efforts of New York magazine’s media columnist, Michael Wolff, to find some investors and buy that same magazine, which is scheduled to go on the auction block soon. (Wolff is also a failed entrepreneur whose attempt to cash in on the Internet bubble was entertainingly chronicled in the book “Burn Rate.”)
But all of that is beside the point. What made me stop and spit out my coffee — well, in a rhetorical flourish kind of way, which is to say there was no actual coffee or spitting — is his salary: “more than $450,000.”
For a weekly column. In a magazine whose total circulation is in the range of 450,000 readers, and largely limited to one city.
I mean, Wolff is a fine and insightful writer, and I mean him no disrespect. But I’m guessing that a vast majority of the people who are reading this entry right now have never heard of him — he’s only a “star” in the insular world of New York media. Yet in the peculiar value system of this city, he’s worth close to half a million dollars a year.
Nice work if you can get it, I guess.
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Sporadic blogging remains in effect, probably through the week. Going through a busy spell at the moment. (I know, there’s a lot in the news right now — but no lack of commentary. Go read the other blogs, they’ve got it more than covered.)