The richest gadget hack in history

Eric Schmidt explains how, despite the proliferation of gadget coverage on the web, Walt Mossberg still has so much influence: "Walt is a brand," the Google chief exec tells the New Yorker's Ken Auletta. Which explains how the Wall Street Journal tech reviewer — who can make or break offerings such as the Palm Pilot (make) and Prodigy (break) — is paid more like a content brand than a reporter. According to the magazine, Mossberg's latest contract brings him approaching a million dollars a year all told. That's probably twice as much as his nearest competitors; and more than ten times the average tech hack's salary.

The profile of Mossberg, by the New Yorker's main media correspondent, is generally flattering. The 60-year-old tech industry veteran comes across as an advocate of consumers, fair, accurate, and generally immune to the blandishments of publicists and consumer electronics executives.

The four-year deal covers the Journal writer's Thursday column, Personal Technology; another column for the business newspaper; and appearances on CNBC, the cable news channel; and his role in the All Things Digital conference, and the new website under that same name.

Which gives rise to the closest thing to a conflict of interest that the New Yorker can identify. Mossberg, who makes no appearances before companies that he covers and owns no tech stocks, gets a cut of ticket sales to the All Things Digital conference, bringing him an estimated $200,000 per year. Among the biggest buyers: the same companies that he covers.

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