Last fall, in Oprah's Next Act, Oprah Winfrey talked about how she has learned to embrace her power.
Well, she did that today, by naming herself CEO of OWN, her new cable network that's been struggling to find its audience.
So much for the life of leisure Oprah once imagined she might have after her daytime talk show ended. ("La-di-da, I'll do a show and then I'll go have lunch with my lady friends in Santa Barbara," she recalls envisioning.)
Here's just a portion of Oprah's lengthy, stream-of-consciousness letter about her executive decision, which she posted this afternoon on her Facebook page. Did her new friend Sheryl Sandberg, whom she met last week in Sun Valley, convince her to get the news out this way? I wonder...
Go With The Flow
Hello friends of Summer, I haven't written lately because my technically challenged self could not access this email account. So many barriers were put in place to protect the account, I ended up barring myself from access. So here we go... Last week was at Allen Conference, with all the movers and shapers of our world. Met some fascinating people like Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. Dynamo woman. So exciting to see women crack that glass ceiling and burst through it. Came home inspired to work harder and do better. Started out the week taking swimming lessons. Moving beyond my amateur doggy paddle. Learned the breast stroke today...
Today I learned to move with the flow. This I've known forever is the great metaphor of life....
I've brought the metaphor to life as I try to evolve OWN into it's full potential. Erik Logan and Sheri Salata, presidents of Harpo today will bring their unique partnering leadership into alignment with the network...Harpo Team and OWN team become ONE...
We're gearing up for October, The Oprah Show team of producers will be producing the Rosie show in Chicago at Harpo studios. I'll be in L.A working on "Next Chapter." I'm also taking The Oprah Show library of 4560 shows and redesigning them into the 100 best lessons I've learned about everything that can help you live a better life. Those will start airing Oct. 10. Same day as Rosie. At my core I'm a teacher, masquerading as a talk show host. And now I'll have a nightly class on OWN...The Best of Life to you, Oprah Winfrey
L. to R.: OWN honchos Christina Norman, David Zaslav, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Freston, Lisa Erspamer
I was on stage with Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the producer and director of Miss Representation, on Friday just after the news broke that Christina Norman was out as CEO of Oprah Winfrey's new TV network, OWN.
What an odd coincidence, since Newsom's documentary explores the dearth of women in "clout positions" in the mainstream media. Newsom says MORE
Patricia Sellers - May 9, 2011 2:54 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Will Oprah Winfrey's OWN be a top 10 cable network?
"Technically, I don't think in terms of being in the top 10," Oprah told me in September, before the 1/1/11 launch of her new cable network. "But do I think we will be? Yes."
Fortune's recent cover story, "Oprah's Next Act," detailed her big hopes and just-as-big fears about her new venture. Now it appears that OWN's road to the MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 28, 2011 3:56 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Oprah Winfrey arrived on cable this weekend at long last. And I do mean long.
When I interviewed Oprah in her Chicago office a few months ago, she pulled a piece of paper out of her desk drawer. It was a note, scrawled in pencil, that Stedman Graham, her boyfriend, wrote to her when they were on vacation together in April 1992. Oprah had never shared the note with MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 3, 2011 12:48 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Does it seem, sometimes, that it's Oprah's World and we're just living in it?
There she is on TV everyday -- not only on The Oprah Winfrey Show but also a virtual presence, at least, on Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and other shows that she and her company, Harpo, have created.
She's on every cover of her magazine, O, telling us what to eat, what to buy, and how to MORE
Patricia Sellers - Oct 1, 2010 1:53 PM ET
Is Martha Stewart going the way of Oprah?
Seems so, given that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) has sealed a deal to move her syndicated daytime TV show to the Hallmark Channel.
The news comes two months after Oprah Winfrey rocked the broadcast TV world by announcing that she's quitting her syndicated show in September 2011 to focus on her new cable network, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.
Surely, neither Oprah now Martha, MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 27, 2010 12:27 PM ET
"If I lost control of the business, I'd lose myself--or at least the ability to be myself. Owning myself is a way to be myself."
--Oprah Winfrey, in "The Business of Being Oprah," a 2002 cover story that I wrote about the billionaire media titan. Back then, Oprah was figuring out who she wanted to be, beyond a daytime talk-show host. She had recently (and warily) formed a partnership with Hearst--from MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 20, 2009 6:30 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Now that Oprah Winfrey is talking about her life-changing moves--to cable from broadcast TV and to Los Angeles from Chicago--I have to say: I'm not surprised at all.
After all, Oprah, who says she'll end her daytime show in September 2011, does things only one way: with her full self in the game.
What I know for sure (and she does too): Building a major cable network will take all MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 20, 2009 3:43 PM ET
Since Tom Freston got blown out of Viacom (VIAB) - ousted by hard-to-please chairman Sumner Redstone in 2006 - he's been doing lots of things that other ex-CEOs wouldn't fathom getting into. Working with Oprah Winfrey and Bono. Making films in Afghanistan, where he once lived. Funding humanitarian projects in Kabul and southeast Asia too.
You can read about all this in my profile of Freston in the current issue of MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 11, 2009 1:43 PM ET
"Not that materialism is going to go away, but people are looking to be better global citizens and live their lives in better balance."
-- Former Viacom (VIA.B) CEO Tom Freston, who Pattie profiles in the new issue of Fortune. To Freston's point, he's now helping Oprah Winfrey develop her new cable TV network, OWN, and working with U2 frontman Bono on his global humanitarian efforts. Does Freston still get calls MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Feb 5, 2009 7:17 PM ET
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Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
