I've heard of Drudge Report before, but never really understood it. Who / what does it cater to and what is its function, a sort of one-man curated news reddit?
I'd say his main demographic is your conservative / libertarian who has little to no faith in government. Socially drudge tends to be moderate; fiscally, very conservative. Sort of a "keep your government hands out of my pocket" type attitude.
He heavily influences a lot of conservative politics, as his reach is massive. Many people think he helped drum up Romney support with a specific narrative across his site in the 2012 Republican primary (whether or not he was paid is up to which conspiracy theorist you speak with).
A link on his site can result in millions of page views
During the Elian Gonzales affair, I sequenced some AP photos into an animation (giving a video effect to a series of photos of a kidnapping) and posted them on my website for a few friends to see. The link ended up on Drudge. AP called to object, and the traffic load was so high I couldn't log on to the server to remove the GIF. Had to call the ISP, told the receptionist "hi, I'm the reason your servers are melting down", and she cheerfully transferred me to the company president. He got a big chuckle out of it, the file was deleted, traffic subsided, and I learned what it meant to get linked to by Drudge.
As someone who shares many libertarian views, I don't really feel that they are part of his target audience. He bashed Ron Paul when he was campaigning and he posts articles that often seem to ridicule constitutionalism and libertarian-ism alike.
I started reading the Drudge Report a couple of years ago, but the more I read, the more I feel like he is catering to racists, homophobes, and the other extremists that have destroyed the republican party.
Disclaimer: I share many libertarian views, but I also believe in many things that would be considered "liberal." Dividing politics into clearly defined parties only inhibits honest self-assessment and productive conversation.
Some stats!
Obvious fact: The numbers are roughly proportional. The same crowd come to drudge report on a daily basis without fail. Might look to be overly ambitious claim but the reality might not be far from it.
Drudge numbers are inflated now, and this year due to it being an election year and one where the very people they cater to were trying to knock out the President. It's going to grab a lot of traffic from that.
It was so much that we actually had one/two day campaigns ready to launch when we were featured..