Broke Media Professionals Work the Night Shift

What’s a down-on-his-luck media professional like Anderson Cooper have to do to make ends meet? What about Arianna Huffington, who’s out there trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents everyday on the internet?  Looks like somebody’s going to have to work two jobs. Lucky for them rambling on behind a podium pays pretty well  — $75,000+ for Anderson.

But how do you put a price on big media names? How do you know you’re not paying too much for, say, Bill Maher. Paid Content took a stab at the question this morning with a list of speaker’s fees for some top media-types.

So who’s the best deal in town? Hands down, NY Times Tech Guy David Pogue (#1 among Print/Online Reporters) for $15K to $20K.

The worst deal? Maybe Bill Maher (#98 among TV Anchors/ Hosts), starting at $75K . We can get his shtick any time we want on HBO for about $10 bucks a month.

Other Power Grid notables:

Anderson Cooper (#27 among TV Anchors/Hosts) starting at $75K

Dr. Sanjay Gupta (#5 among TV Pundits) for $50K to $75K

Jim Cramer (#144 among TV Anchors/Hosts) starting at $50K

Charlie Rose (#15 among TV Anchors/Host) for $50K to $75K

Bob Woodward (#4 among Print/Online Reporters) for $50K to $75K

Craig Ferguson (#41 among TV Anchors/Hosts) for $50K to $75K

Arianna Huffington (#4 among Newspaper/Online Editors) for $30K to $50K

Unless you’re the Senate, in which case you can get Arianna to chat you down for free.

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