As traditional media cope with the digital revolution and watch ad revenues decline and audiences splinter, some fortunes wax but many wane. A local TV insider says few local TV personalities now make more than $400,000. He estimates that meteorologist Bob Ryan, who recently left Channel 4 for Channel 7 over staff pay cuts, makes about $600,000 at WJLA.
Our source also estimates that Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon get $1.5 million each for ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption.
Here are others:
Wolf Blitzer,reporter/host, CNN, $3 million.
Jim Vance, news anchor, NBC4, $1.3 million.
Don Graham, CEO, Washington Post Company, $412,740.
Katharine Weymouth, CEO, Washington Post Media, $472, 997.
Bob Woodward, associate editor, Washington Post, $100 a month.
Patricia Harrison, president, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $369,514.
John Fahey, president, National Geographic Society, $1,327,951.
Paula Kerger, president, Public Broadcasting Service, $543,500.
George Stephanopoulos, ABC’s Good Morning America, $8 million.
Robert Siegel, cohost, NPR’s All Things Considered, $319,300.
Scott Simon, host, NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, $300,648.
Reporter, Washington Post, starting $70,000, average $90,000.
Reporter, USA Today, $80,000 to $150,000.
SPEAKING FEES
$5,000 and Up
Chris Cillizza, Washington Post’s The Fix columnist.
Dana Milbank, Washington Post op-ed columnist.
$7,500 and Up
Donna Brazile, political analyst, CNN and ABC News.
Luke Russert, NBC News correspondent at large.
$10,000 and Up
Brett Baier, Fox News host.
Gloria Borger, CNN analyst.
Charlie Cook, political analyst.
Amy Holmes, CNN political contributor.
Katty Kay, BBC News Washington correspondent.
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post op-ed columnist.
Amy Walter, ABC News political director.
$15,000 and Up
Tucker Carlson, editor-in-chief, The Daily Caller.
Anita Dunn, political strategist and TV commentator.
Gwen Ifill, moderator, PBS’s Washington Week.
Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard editor and political commentator.
$20,000 and Up
Laura Ingraham, conservative commentator.
$25,000 and Up
William Bennett, conservative commentator.
Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC correspondent.
Bob Schieffer, moderator, CBS’s Face the Nation.
Bob Woodward, Washington Post associate editor and author.
$40,000 and Up
Newt Gingrich, former House speaker.
David Gregory, moderator, NBC’s Meet the Press.
Ted Koppel, broadcast journalist.
Charles Krauthammer, columnist and commentator.
Jim Lehrer, anchor, PBS NewsHour.
Joe Scarborough, cohost, MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
George Will, columnist and commentator.
This feature first appeared in the November 2010 issue of The Washingtonian.
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Sherri Dalphonse joined Washingtonian in 1986 as an editorial intern, and worked her way to the top of the masthead when she was named editor-in-chief in 2022. She oversees the magazine’s editorial staff, and guides the magazine’s stories and direction. She lives in DC.
