Wine Spectator Releases its Restaurant Awards

Wine Spectator's annual restaurant awards edition is out.  Over 3,300 restaurants made this "exclusive" list that was hand selected by WS editors.  Congratulations to all the "winners".  Why the sarcastic use of quotes?  Well, let's look at what it takes to "win" this award.  Applicants are required to submit a menu, their wine list, a cover letter describing their wine policies and (best of all) a non-refundable "processing fee" of $200.  For this, they receive a four-line summary along with the 3,300 other winners.  Plus, WS gets some cross-promotion going by sending each "winner" a certificate enshrining their place in this exclusive group.  The certificate does not mention what percent of applicants made the grade (my guess is 99%) but it does provide a prominent bit of free advertising for WS in the entryway of 3,300 restaurants.  

Is it worthwhile for WS to go to all this trouble?  The math tells us that 3,300 x $200 = $660,000.  Not bad, probably WS's most profitable issue all year.  That should keep Mr. Shanken in cigars for a while.....