How well off is Meltzer?

[Guest Autoclave]

Walking the dog, I drifted off and started thinking about how despite having a kinda weird, trivial thing as his legacy, being Dave Meltzer is probably a fairly pleasant existence, at least in terms of enjoying a low-stress career that he by all accounts enjoys and finds lots of perks and green in. I was reminded of widely differing reports I’ve read of just how pleasant an existence it actually is, leading me to a few questions that I’m wondering if there’s any consensus on. I posted this elsewhere before being reminded that there are a bunch of folks on this board who know Meltzer or at least know a bit about the WON:

 

- Is there any sense of roughly how many people subscribe to the hard copy of the newsletter at the going rate of $119 per year, or however much it costs per month/per issue? Like in a week where he only puts out one issue, how many copies is he sending out?

 

- Similarly, how many people now subscribe to the Members version of F4WOnline at the same price, gaining access to the WON that way? I imagine a lot of his hard copy readers are flocking to it: I know a bunch of people who only recently started subscribing once it became available as a packaged deal on the site. On the radio show they’ve said that subscriptions have risen considerably with the change.

 

- How much is it costing him in a given week/month/year to print and mail out the thing? My understanding is that he has weeks with two or even three issues, and that a 52 issue subscription of late often only lasts 7-8 months. Assuming he puts out on average something like 75-80 issues a year, what’s the overhead?

 

- To that end, what other business expenses would be accounted for beyond shipping the WON out? Taking him on his word that he doesn’t pay sources for information, only other stuff that immediately comes to mind would be occasional travel and buying increasingly more and more PPVs, probably 40-50 in total for ‘08.

 

- Adding whatever he makes doing the Yahoo MMA stuff, newspaper editorials, and sporadic radio and TV appearances to the amount he nets from the newsletter, how much can we assume he’s making in a given year? Are there any other outlets through which he’s raking in cream that I’ve not mentioned here? I assume he makes nothing or next to nothing for the Sports Byline show, particularly with his decreasing role in it.

 

These are just to satisfy my curiosity: I’m not planning a Roc-a-Fella takeover of the grapz journalism game, or writing a book report on the dude, or any of that.

[Loss]

I would imagine Dave has been making in the comfortable six figures for many years now, and he may even be a millionaire at this point in his life, although I'm not sure. The only thing I would say, though, is that there is a lot of stress in his life. I'm sure doing the WON on a deadline is pretty stressful, especially when stories change pretty often, and have to be deciphered in terms of who's telling the truth and who isn't, and then running with one or the other. He knows anything he says that's incorrect will be ripped apart. But I think back to the Benoit tragedy and subsequent fallout from last summer, and I'm sure that was an extremely stressful time period. There was so much news, coming out constantly at that, and the fallout continued for months afterward. Also, going back to the Vince trial, he was on hand covering the story every single day of the trial. He's talked about the amazing personal sacrifice he makes on a regular basis to actually publish the WON, and I believe him.

 

I've heard varying numbers on the number of subscribers: 1,000; 3,000; 5,000, 7,000 -- I have no idea which is correct. I'm sure doing the WON during the late 90s/early 00s boom was very lucrative, and when he went online, I'm sure the number of subscribers increased quite a bit.

[Childs]

Yeah, his life is anything but low-stress. He cranks a ridiculous amount of copy every week, and he's constantly competing for scoops, especially on the MMA front. I write for a living and I'm sort of in awe of his production. He must be working or thinking about work almost every moment.

[Guest Autoclave]

In no way was "low stress" a dig, merely a presumption that he enjoys what he's doing, makes his own hours, works primarily from home, has acquired financial security in his forties, isn't engaging in backbreaking labor, etc. That's not to say that you have to have peoples' lives in your hands to justify stress. I do wonder how being the most credible source for news in his field adds/lessens the stressfulness of his work. There's certainly a reputation to maintain, but that rep affords him certain benefits and liberties as well.

 

Like any journalist, the busy periods no doubt weigh heavier on him than the slow ones. Though I would agree that tens of thousands of words every week of the year, even in issues where certain sections may lack timeliness/sound structure/editing, is an incredible, commendable pace, particularly when you consider his workload's self-imposed and copy self-edited.

[sek69]

One thing he has going for him is the low overhead, the USPS has bulk rates for shipping as many newsletters as he does, plus I'm sure he can write the cost of buying PPVs off as a business expense if he wants to (which I'm sure he doesn't have to do anymore, but I bet he did for a while before he made it big).

 

 

Between the WON and his Yahoo gig I'd wager he's probably pulling in somewhere in the mid six figures, which must be odd for him now that he's most likely making the same or more money than most of the people he writes about.

 

One thing I'll remember from the post-Benoit media circus was how tired and ragged Dave looked in his appearances on TV. I really thought he was going to cut back or end the WON after that, it seemed like the life was just completely sucked out of him.

[WrestlingPower]

I either read or heard an interview with Meltzer around 97-98 where he said he was making like $150K then. I think I heard a 5,000 readership # around that point too. From what I've heard Yahoo pays well, as I think Bix or someone posted about how well paid some of their mainstream sports writers are, and with the # of hits his stuff gets, they probably pay him well. It seems they pick up his travel expenses for UFC & MMA trips. I'm sure all PPV fees, etc. are all business expenses.

 

I would be curious how his readership is doing though post-wrestling boom, now with the rise of MMA adding other readers/subtracting those that think he focuses too much on it. I'm sure this online merger has helped him get some readers back though.

[Bix]

I was reading an early '85 issue (pre-WM) and he said he had 900 subscribers then, so I have to think that he has more subscribers than he lets on now.

[rovert]

One thing he has going for him is the low overhead, the USPS has bulk rates for shipping as many newsletters as he does, plus I'm sure he can write the cost of buying PPVs off as a business expense if he wants to (which I'm sure he doesn't have to do anymore, but I bet he did for a while before he made it big).

I was about to say the same thing and that for a business owner with decent turnover he doesnt have any "real" employees.

 

Someone on F4W messing around with one of those propery websites posted an aeral picture of Meltzer's house and it seemed pretty swish.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

I was about to say the same thing and that for a business owner with decent turnover he doesnt have any "real" employees.

How dare you discount the fine work of Deputy Managing Editor Scott Williams.

[rovert]

I was about to say the same thing and that for a business owner with decent turnover he doesnt have any "real" employees.

How dare you discount the fine work of Deputy Managing Editor Scott Williams.

 

I think just a badge comes with that job.

[WrestlingPower]

I found an old Wrestling Flyer newsletter over the weekend that had an interview with Meltzer in it. At the time of the interview (it was either mid-1992 or mid-1994, I forget), he said he had 5900 subscribers. It's in the last-ever Wrestling Flyer so if anyone can figure out when that folded, that's the year.

[Bix]

I think Clark was still doing interviews in '94 so mid-'94 sounds right.