[kevinmchugh]

Magazines were so flush with cash that Vonnegut was paid $750 for his first story. That's unadjusted for inflation. I'm no expert, but I think a first time author getting $750 from a magazine would be doing pretty well these days. He saw that market fall apart within his lifetime, and blamed it on th audience moving to TV, for what it's worth.

[morkalork]

Many well known authors got their start in magazines like Hunter S. Thompson; Where would he be if he was starting out today? Probably doing podcasts and the youtube circuit instead.

[0xDEAFBEAD]

My assumption is that many people are trying to break into the podcast circuit and the vast majority basically fail. The winners being those who are best suited for it. My assumption would be that Hunter S Thompson happened to be suited for a different attention market in a different era.

[pclmulqdq]

The last time I checked (2022), top-tier lit mags will pay about $50-100 for a story. They pay mostly in "exposure" these days.