Where Have All The Fans Gone?

Submitted by Leslie on Wed, 04/12/2006 - 12:00pm.

Poor Howard Stern. Millions of his fans have disappeared ever since he moved from free to Sirius satellite broadcasting.

And in January, Stern lashed out at his fans during an interview for not following him to Sirius, claiming it should not be 4 million but 20 million subscribers. And he's taking it personally.

Stern, can you blame us? Who wants to pay to listen to your rants when we can get it from another local station for free.

The same goes for subscriptions for op-ed newspaper content like Times Select for The New York Times. I'm not paying extra when I already subscribe to the paper. It only makes the writers disappear, just like David Carr, the Carpetbagger, feared. And Stern proves it doesn't matter how notorious you are -- no one's paying.

Anonymous (not verified) @ Thu, 04/13/2006 - 3:21pm

Stern's lashing out at fans for not following him to Sirius was a joke. He was being funny. He wasn't really mad at his fans. This is clear if you read the entire interview, not just the excerpts reprinted in the NY Post and other journalistically suspect outlets.

Jacqueline Colozzi @ Tue, 04/18/2006 - 1:00am

He phrased it as a joke, but there is always some truth when you peel away the layers of humor. Wouldn't you be bummed if your fan base was less loyal than you once thought it was? Even if their decisions are entirely logical--AHA!--there is the problem. It is entirely logical for his fans to not pay. Sure he has loads of money. It's not the money itself that kills him, it is the lack of devotion.

The best way to hide hurt feelings is to laugh and crack a joke. Stern has been doing it his entire life.

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A group blog exploring our media world. Produced by the Digital Journalism: Blogging course at New York University, Spring 2007.

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