Howard Stern, King Of All Media, On The Gradations Of Media Status



I've often wondered about the gradations of media status. Everyone knows, for example, that Vanity Fair has greater print magazine cachet than, say, Playgirl. That goes without saying (Averted Gaze). But print aint what it used to be, even as recently as a half a decade ago. And what about the various media verticals? Technically speaking, Perez Hilton, though a social newbie, pulls more eyeballs than, say, any show on the CW (And that, we cannot lie, is kind of scary). But TV trumps the web, right? Or, as Gore Vidal said, "I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television."

Television, after the movies, seems to be at the top, statuswise-mediawise. That's why I imagine so many media A-list types appear eagerly without getting paid.

Where does satellite radio fit in all this? Howard Stern, as befitting a King, is cooly logical about the gradations of status in the various forms of media as he talks to XM-Sirius news reporter Lisa G. From HowardStern.com:

"Lisa G came in with the headlines and, in an aside, noted that she recently cried over her red carpet press line placement. Lisa said she got emotional after seeing her spot was behind 'more important' media outlets, like the television networks – and most embarrassingly, several dot coms. Howard was miffed at first but then resigned; saying the order of press line import should probably go TV, Internet, Radio and then Satellite Radio, as it's still an emerging technology. Howard joked: 'There was a college newspaper ahead of Lisa.'"

Howard Stern is the self-proclaimed "King of All media," still infinitely entertaining, but he is no longer nearly as influential as he was on terrestrial radio. Then again, terrestrial radio -- outside of maybe NPR and, possibly Air America radio -- is a vast media wasteland of cliched DJs and repetitious music that oftentimes sounds like the Jersey turnpike looks. When will terrestrial radio, so devastated by the collapse of the automotive industry and their ad dollars, just hire bloggers, their natural media allies?