Timothy Noah conducted a short reader poll and established the relative value of NY Times columnists as follows ($3.13 being the line separating “above normal” from “below normal”:
Paul Krugman: $6.90
Thomas L. Friedman: $4.10
Frank Rich: $3.92
Maureen Dowd: $3.42
Nicholas Kristof: $2.35
Bob Herbert: $1.42
David Brooks: $1.39
John Tierney: $0.31
It’s notable that an economist tops the unscientific survey, since most people don’t think of economics as being that interesting. I know he doesn’t just write about that, but it does illustrate that interesting writing can come from virtually any field.