{"id":376157,"date":"2010-03-01T11:40:24","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T16:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/business\/archive\/2010\/03\/what-is-sarah-palin-worth\/36814\/"},"modified":"2010-03-01T11:40:24","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T16:40:24","slug":"what-is-sarah-palin-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/376157","title":{"rendered":"What is Sarah Palin Worth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Her political future may be questionable<\/a>, but with each public fracas<\/a>, tea party keynote<\/a>, and overseas speech<\/a>,
\nSarah Palin’s fortune is growing. From her book deal to her Fox News
\ncommentator gig, Palin is raking in payments that make it hard to
\nremember the time when she earned a mere $125,000 a year<\/a> as governor of Alaska.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press calculated<\/a>
\nthat her total assets for 2007 totaled $1.2 million. That was based on
\n$230,000 in joint income, including Todd Palin’s snowmobile winnings
\nand the state oil royalties that the Palins, like all Alaskans, receive
\neach year, plus a primary residence worth half a million, two vacation
\nhomes, and multiple watercraft. <\/p>\n

If those assets didn’t
\nalready classify her as one of the “elites” she makes her living
\nderiding, her post-gubernatorial income certainly does. Palin’s lawyer
\ndeclined to comment and exact figures are nowhere to be found, but
\nwe’ve taken a stab at estimating the numbers. Palin’s earnings can be
\nbroken down into three categories, some more quantifiable than others:<\/p>\n

1. $1.25 million to $7 million for Going Rogue<\/i><\/b>. Palin’s memoir, in its twelfth week on the New York Times<\/i> bestseller list, has dominated sales since its November release by Harper Collins. She acknowledged<\/a> pocketing a $1.25 million advance sum in a financial disclosure forms while still in office, though industry insiders estimate<\/a> the total payment was much higher, up to $7 million. If the book earns enough royalties to pay back her advance<\/a>, she will reap additional ongoing payments.<\/p>\n

2. $75,000 to $150,000 per speech<\/b>.
\nPalin signed on with the Washington Speaker’s Bureau after resigning as
\ngovernor and is making the speaking rounds. Though rumors at first circulated<\/a>
\nthat groups were hesitant to book her due to her divisive reputation,
\nshe’s given speeches in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Nashville, and, more
\nrecently, Florida<\/a>. She snagged $150,000 for her debut speech in Hong Kong, as reported by<\/a> Newsweek<\/i>, but reports<\/a> peg the going rate at $100,000 per gig — which she is said to have earned<\/a> for her Tea Party Convention speech last month — minus a $25,000 discount for West Coast engagements. <\/p>\n

3. $500,000 and counting for her Fox deal<\/b>. In January, Palin struck a multiyear deal with Fox News<\/a>
\nto provide commentary on TV, web, and radio outlets. Terms were not
\ndisclosed. David Brunner, head of television talent agency DB &
\nAssociates, claims Fox has paid her about half a million dollars up
\nfront and is creating a recurring feature that would make Palin a more
\nregular presence on its TV news shows. If this vehicle succeeds, he
\nsays, Palin’s earnings will likely increase.<\/p>\n

Palin and her
\nfamily, of course, aren’t the only ones benefiting from her celebrity.
\nHer debut on The O’Reilly Factor sent Fox’s ratings skyrocketing 22 percent<\/a>, and her November interview with Oprah gave the talk show host her highest ratings in two years<\/a>. Runner’s World<\/i> ran an infamous summer photo spread of the scantily clad then-governor, immediately garnering a 57 percent boost in weekly pageviews<\/a>. When Newsweek<\/i> ran one of these photos on its cover in November, the magazine’s newsstand sales jumped by 9 percent. <\/p>\n

Calculating how much the media earns off of Sarah Palin is a lot harder than the other way around, but it’s also the much more interesting<\/a>
\nfigure. Having surrendered her elected office, Palin is now almost
\nentirely reliant upon her status as a public figure for her family’s
\nfinancial livelihood. Once (or if) her headline value begins to decline, she
\nwill have to rethink her strategy.


\n

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\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her political future may be questionable, but with each public fracas, tea party keynote, and overseas speech, Sarah Palin’s fortune is growing. From her book deal to her Fox News commentator gig, Palin is raking in payments that make it hard to remember the time when she earned a mere $125,000 a year as governor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2670,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}