The former King of All Media is fast slipping
By Toni Fitzgerald Sep 12, 2006
Not long ago he was the King of All Media. He may soon be a mere prince.
Nearly a year after his very public defection to satellite, shock jock Howard Stern is in danger of becoming an afterthought. And no wonder. His radio and TV shows are no longer available for free, the latter having moved from E! to an on-demand channel, and it's been months since he's been in a righteous public scrap with anyone.
The damning evidence: Visits to Stern's web site are way off, as are Stern search queries.
That’s according to Hitwise, the online measurement company that monitors the internet habits of 25 million web users worldwide. Hitwise reports that visits to Stern’s official site have been declining since the talk show host announced nearly two years ago that he was abandoning commercial radio for satellite.
Whereas in March 2005, Stern’s site attracted 0.016 percent of visits to all categories tracked by Hitwise, by last month that had slipped to 0.0047 percent, a decline of 71 percent.
Search queries about Stern have fallen off even more steeply. In March 2005, "Howard Stern" accounted for 0.035 percent of queries. By mid-August that percentage had fallen to 0.0036, a 90 percent decline.
"While no one can argue with the financial elements of his decision to move to satellite, the data clearly shows that his celebrity hasn't benefited," says Bill Tancer, Hitwise's general manager of global research. Stern's Sirius contract is for a reported $500 million.
Interestingly, though, the data shows that Sirius continues to benefit from Stern’s presence even as his public profile decreases, in sort of an ironic ruboff effect.
Sirius's share of visits spiked to their highest point during Stern’s first month on satellite in January, passing those of arch-rival XM, and they have remained high, above XM's.
Stern’s fall from public awareness should come as no big surprise. With a mere 4.7 million Sirius subscribers, and not all of them Howard fans, Stern is heard daily by a mere fraction of the 12 million listeners he claimed at his peak on terrestrial radio.
In his first months on satellite, he managed to stay in the news after CBS Radio sued him over a contract dispute. But once that suit was resolved, Stern slipped from the headlines. A recent Google News search turns up about 460 stories on him, compared with thousands early in his Sirius tenure.
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended Sept. 3, the top five parent companies remained the same. Microsoft was No. 1, followed by Yahoo, Time Warner, Google and News Corp., according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Top brands also were the same as last week: Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, Google, Microsoft and AOL.
GUS Plc once again retained the top spot among advertisers, delivering 8.99 million impressions to No. 2 NexTag's 3.64 million. Yahoo again served up the most ads, 24.14 million, followed by MySpace at 8.29 million.
Sessions per person were steady at 16, and domains visited per person fell to 37, one fewer than last week. Average PC time per person dipped slightly to 15 hours, 35 minutes and 24 seconds for the week.
Top 25 parent companies Through September 3
#
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Microsoft
82,640
61.8
0:41:08
2
Yahoo!
72,496
54.2
1:02:38
3
Time Warner
67,721
50.7
1:30:36
4
Google
65,616
49.1
0:24:33
5
News Corp. Online
34,906
26.1
0:40:29
6
eBay
32,625
24.4
0:45:11
7
InterActiveCorp
25,862
19.4
0:14:31
8
Amazon
21,394
16.0
0:12:16
9
Landmark Communications
19,511
14.6
0:22:52
10
Walt Disney Internet Group
19,143
14.3
0:23:30
11
RealNetworks, Inc.
17,217
12.9
0:23:52
12
Apple Computer
16,404
12.3
0:29:25
13
New York Times Company
15,394
11.5
0:09:03
14
United Online
13,917
10.4
0:28:03
15
Verizon Communications
12,650
9.5
0:15:06
16
Wikipedia
11,750
8.8
0:08:18
17
Bank of America
11,308
8.5
0:28:23
18
AT&T Inc.
10,847
8.1
0:14:13
19
E.W. Scripps Company
10,745
8.0
0:05:20
20
YouTube
10,558
7.9
0:18:51
21
CNET Networks
10,451
7.8
0:06:45
22
Comcast Corp.
10,167
7.6
0:25:15
23
CBS Corporation
10,112
7.6
0:18:06
24
Gannett
9,701
7.3
0:11:18
25
Viacom Digital
9,407
7.0
0:33:03
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Top 25 brands Through September 3
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Yahoo!
72,156
54.0
1:02:44
2
Google
64,634
48.4
0:24:06
3
MSN/Windows Live
63,665
47.6
0:38:29
4
Microsoft
54,134
40.5
0:17:30
5
AOL
48,172
36.0
1:55:02
6
eBay
27,908
20.9
0:47:52
7
MySpace
26,981
20.2
0:47:12
8
Weather Channel
18,773
14.1
0:23:31
9
Real Network
17,213
12.9
0:23:53
10
Amazon
17,108
12.8
0:11:41
11
Ask Search Network
16,783
12.6
0:13:24
12
Apple
16,404
12.3
0:29:25
13
MapQuest
15,758
11.8
0:06:51
14
Wikipedia
11,708
8.8
0:08:15
15
About.com
10,742
8.0
0:03:20
16
YouTube
10,558
7.9
0:18:51
17
CNN
10,461
7.8
0:19:02
18
Bank of America
9,366
7.0
0:32:18
19
Comcast
9,113
6.8
0:27:24
20
Blogger
8,671
6.5
0:06:02
21
ESPN
8,592
6.4
0:23:03
22
IMDb - Internet Movie Database
7,411
5.6
0:08:18
23
Disney Online
7,382
5.5
0:28:36
24
Lycos Network
7,232
5.4
0:04:02
25
Wal-Mart Stores
6,932
5.2
0:06:28
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads) Through September 3
#
Company
Impressions (000)
1
GUS Plc
8,991,380
2
NexTag, Inc.
3,644,110
3
Reunion.com L.L.C.
2,074,483
4
Netflix, Inc.
1,928,906
5
Verizon Communications, Inc.
1,280,724
6
United Online, Inc.
1,131,095
7
Dell Computer Corporation
1,081,718
8
Blockbuster Inc.
1,048,865
9
HSBC Holdings plc
985,824
10
YourGiftCards.com
963,342
11
Low Rate Source
770,160
12
Ford Motor Company
669,071
13
Time Warner Inc.
663,332
14
Cablevision Systems Corporation
632,984
15
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
622,630
16
Providian Financial Corporation
610,365
17
eBay, Inc.
597,564
18
Skype Technologies S.A.
596,688
19
Echostar Communications Corporation
567,291
20
QuinStreet
564,751
21
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
548,246
22
CashCall, Inc.
498,617
23
Lenox Financial Mortgage
453,015
24
Morgan Stanley
416,682
25
SBC Communications, Inc.
395,027
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance
Top 25 advertising sites (excludes house ads) Through September 3
