The Drudge Report, an American news aggregator, was founded and is edited by American journalist Matt Drudge. In addition to hosting radio and television shows, Drudge is also an author. The Drudge Report had 1,000 email subscribers in March 1995; by 1997, Drudge’s email service had 85,000 members. When Drudge broke several stories ahead of the major media in the late 1990s, his website became more well-known.
When Drudge revealed that Jack Kemp would be Republican Bob Dole’s running mate in the 1996 presidential election, he first attracted widespread attention. He rose to fame in 1998 after publishing the story of former Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff, who was the first news source to break the story that would ultimately lead to the Monica Lewinsky controversy. According to a Business 2.0 magazine article from April 2003, Drudge’s website generated roughly $1.3 million in advertising revenue annually, or $3,500 per day. The magazine claimed that after deducting his very low server costs, the Drudge Report website made $800,000 annually. According to a September 2003 Miami Herald article, Drudge believes his website and radio show bring in $1.2 million annually. During a C-SPAN appearance on April 30, 2004, he acknowledged that he makes over $1 million annually.
According to Matthew Lysiak, author of the 2020 book Drudge Revolution, every significant presidential campaign since the late 1990s had a staff member whose job it was to communicate with and maybe influence Drudge. Tracy Sefl, Hillary Clinton’s director of communications, became friends with Drudge before to the 2008 Democratic primaries; she refers to their friendship in the book as “dangerous” because of the Drudge Report’s influence.
