Whoa. According to the New York Post, the Drudge Report makes $800,000 a year. No word on precisely how he does this — advertising? Syndication? Counterfeiting? But either way, that probably makes Drudge the wealthiest blogger in the world.

And when you think about it, Drudge is probably also the first ever blogger in history. Back when his web site started up, I remember people saying, what the hell? It’s nothing but a bunch of links to other news sites. I can just go to them myself! Except that in a networked world flooded with too much information, the valuable people become the ones who point you in the right places to go — a proposition that Drudge originally discovered, and that a worldwide explosion of blogs has now proved.

The funny thing is, I remember when I first began reading the Drudge Report … back when he did it via email. It was late 1994, and I remember thinking, wow, this guy is a right-wing conspiracy nutcase, but he’s getting some interesting scoops on Hollywood insider info! The earliest copy of his old-style email report I can find is from April 3, 1995, archived on Google News. You can view it here, and here’s an excerpt:

H I L L I A R Y R O D H A M C L I N T O N

WASHINGTON-Talk Radio is buzzing. We overheard several national shows this week stating-as fact-the imminent indictment of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The charge is said to be obstruction of justice. If our First Lady did order the removal of files from the office of Vince Foster- after the office was sealed- this could spell trouble in the eyes of the law. The source of this seems to be Larry Nichols. Mr. Nichols has been no stranger to Talk Radio. He spent months after the election airing dirty Arkansas laundry.

(Thanks to Media Bistro for pointing this one out!)