New York Magazine's media reporter Gabriel Sherman goes inside Sarah Palin's $12 million a year empire in this week's issue. Here's some of the math on Palin's various projects:

  • $1 million/year - 3-year contract with Fox News as a contributor.
  • $7 million book deal with HarperCollins - Her memoir, Going Rogue, sold more than 2.2 million copies so far. She is planning a second book.
  • $2 million for her TLC show - She is getting $250,000 for each episode and TLC bought eight of them.
  • $100,000 for speaking engagements—She is on the Colin Powell, George W. Bush, and Rudy Giuliani level, pay-wise.
  • $100,000 for the tea-party event, including $18,000 for private-jet travel.

Just like Glenn Beck and other Fox News personalities, Palin uses her media (and political) presence to siphon off additional projects.

Hmm, sounds familiar. From New York:

During the campaign, people said she could be another Oprah, but now, in many ways, she's bigger than Oprah, an empath for people who feel, rightly or wrongly, that America has forgotten them. "People are drawn to her," says Fox News programming chief Bill Shine. "People look at her and say, ‘She has a bunch of the same troubles I do, there's a mom who's there changing diapers.'"