Start talking about magazine salaries and you hear a lot of quivery voices and confabulation. But sooner or later, the conversation takes the inevitable turn: Tom Junod can't really make $300,000 a year at Esquire, can he?

The New York Daily News reported in June that feature writer Junod had turned down a $300,000 offer from GQ and the New Yorker to follow editor David Granger to

Esquire. Junod told the Daily News that Esquire offered him more flexibility but not more money. In the magazine world, the news hit like a tidal wave. It was yet another ripple emanating from the El Niqo of the glossies, Tina Brown.

Eager to make a mark when she took over the floundering Vanity Fair in 1984, Brown lured writers by offering then-unheard-of six-figure contracts. Brown upped the ante, turning her writers and editors into stars who, if not well-paid by Wall Street standards, were at least able to duplicate the earnings of successful CPAs for the first time. By 1992, when she hired best-selling author James Stewart ("Den of Thieves") at the New Yorker, Brown was paying up to $50,000 a piece, according to gossip columnist Liz Smith (although the item included a disclaimer, an off-the-record "preposterous" from "a New Yorker insider").

Dominick Dunne used to be considered the nation's highest-paid magazine writer, with a deal that's rumored to have rewarded him close to $500,000 last year, when his O.J. Simpson stories ran in Vanity Fair practically every month. But the New York Observer recently reported that the not-yet-launched ESPN Magazine matched that lofty sum recently when it tried to lure away Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly -- sweetening the offer with a two-movie deal at Disney. Reilly stayed put for $450,000 -- and a three-movie deal at Warner Bros. And industry scuttlebutt has Norman Mailer making $140,000 for two stories at George, a magazine that routinely tells writers it pays only $1 to $2 a word.

The National Writers' Union, which is currently surveying freelancers' salaries, reports that the standard magazine rate is still $1 a word, with $3 a word at the high end -- the same rates that prevailed in the industry 20 years ago. Back then, publishers only bought first North American serial rights; now, locked into agreements with online providers, they're demanding all-rights contracts. "For most freelancers, rates in real terms are going down," reports Jonathan Tasini, the National Writers' Union president. Tasini lost an assignment at the Atlantic Monthly when he questioned the all-rights contract his editor sent him. He faxed back the union's standard contract, and the editor canceled the assignment. "I was surprised when they weren't even willing to negotiate," says Tasini, who wound up writing his article for a think tank.

The real story, according to industry insiders, is how little most magazines pay. "As a result of this Tom Junod thing," says GQ editor-in-chief Art Cooper, "whatever a writer does really get is wildly inflated (by the rumor mill)."

A cover story for an upscale glossy still pays most writers only $5,000, though someone with a sharky agent -- and a hot-ticket book -- might be able to command $10,000 for a celebrity interview at a woman's magazine. "It's rare for anyone who's not in the Condi Nast world to get $15,000 or more for a story," says one magazine writer with more than 20 years in the business. Many freelancers are willing to accept $1 a word for the visibility they get at a publication like the New York Times Magazine, which now pays star writers $80,000 for four pieces, according to an editor.

Even at Condi Nast, big-money contracts aren't the norm. I was under contract to Vanity Fair for three years, and I can attest to the fact that not every writer there makes six figures (although after my column was killed, I might have been the nation's highest-paid writer on a per-word basis). Once, Kevin Sessums, the magazine's celebrity profiler, was said to be displeased at the contract editor-in-chief Graydon Carter offered, so he fought back in a way Vanity Fair could understand: He got entertainment mogul David Geffen to call up and complain on his behalf. (His tactic worked, according to office folklore.) Kurt Andersen, tapped to write a media column at the New Yorker after his stint running New York magazine, is said to be paid $200,000 a year for his column; according to his friends, he's also contractually bound to attend meetings and provide story ideas. (Andersen refused to comment.)

Condi Nast editors Tina Brown and Anna Wintour of Vogue have compensation packages worth about $1 million a year, according to a well-placed source. Of course, that includes such hard-to-measure items as interest-free mortgages and clothing allowances. "They don't have stock, either, so maybe that's fair," points out another source. Even Vogue contributor Charles Gandee got a Condi Nast-backed mortgage in 1992, when he was just an editor-at-large for HG. Michael Caruso, Details' new 35-year-old editor, is reportedly earning $600,000 a year -- a figure Caruso calls "insanely inflated."

A more realistic look at Condi Nast salaries came last week, when the New Yorker's former publisher, Diane Silberstein, sued the company for wrongful termination. Her court papers included her 1996 compensation: a salary of $340,000, plus commissions of $10,600 and perks over and above the usual life-and-health insurance ($1,400 a month for a car lease, $650 a month for a garage, $10,000 a year for club dues or summer house rental, and $1,500 a year for a health club membership or a personal trainer).

"You have to be lucky enough to have gotten not just the name recognition, but to be in a field where there's a bidding war going on," says an insider who tracks salaries closely. Junod benefited from the Esquire-GQ rivalry; Reilly's bosses at Sports Illustrated "were correct to be panicked about ESPN," according to one of his rivals. Charla Krupp was said to be lured back to Glamour with a salary approaching $200,000 -- which is virtually unheard of for a No. 2 editor, let alone someone seven notches down the masthead. But Krupp's salary is expected to pay off because her beat -- beauty -- is the magazine's most important advertising source, and she's also a staple on TV for the magazine.

These days, the disparity between what the editors in chief make and what their top deputies take home is growing, even at Time and Newsweek. Traditionally, the two newsweeklies have paid their Nos. 2 and 3 editors the highest in the industry, with salary-and-bonus packages over $250,000. (Industry sources doubt that many deputy editors at the non-news magazines -- Krupp notwithstanding -- are making $200,000.) Another anomaly is People magazine, which is a cash cow with very punishing hours. There, senior editors are recruited with salaries in the $120,000-140,000-a-year range, which of course pushes up salaries for the Nos. 2, 3 and 4. Still, "people go through there like a revolving door," says one source.

Time magazine is the only place where rates for star writers seem to have actually declined in recent years. Once upon a time, according to an industry source who does not work at Time, star writers like Charles Krauthammer or Roger Rosenblatt earned $25,000 for cover stories and up to $8,000 for 800-word essays. "That's been reined in under Walter Isaacson's watch," the source says, although rates for the mid-level writers have increased.

Jesse Kornbluth, now AOL Networks' editorial director, calls himself "a recovering magazine writer." His line: "At [San Francisco Chronicle columnist] Herb Caen's funeral, Robin Williams said, 'To be a famous journalist is rather like being the best-dressed woman in radio.' Unless you can turn your magazine stories into movies or books, you're building no equity. As a business proposition, it's hard to think of a more stupid way to manage a career," Kornbluth concludes. "As a business proposition -- that's my point."