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 that this number is 3%.
Clearly, it is getting worse.
The day before Norman, a former president of MTV, got the boot at OWN, MTV Networks CEO Judy McGrath unexpectedly quit Viacom (VIA) -- frustrated by a series of moves by her boss, Viacom CEO Philippe Daumon, to limit her creative license and authority over the company's biggest and most profitable division.
The fall of McGrath and Norman follows the March ouster of Vivian Schiller from the top job at NPR and the April dismissal of Reader's Digest CEO Mary Berner.
Meanwhile, the cast of media queens on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list is shrinking since Cathie Black left Hearst Magazines--only to struggle mightily and get discharged as New York City Schools chancellor. The other most powerful woman in print, Ann Moore, stepped down as chairman and CEO of Time Inc. (TWX), Fortune's parent, late last year.
Fortune's MPW list still includes media honchos such as Anne Sweeney, who heads Disney's (DIS) Media Networks, and Bonnie Hammer and Lauren Zalaznick at NBC Universal (CMCSA).
And if you consider Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Yahoo (YHOO) chief Carol Bartz media executives (I do), then women still do swagger in the media universe.
But the unexpected exits of Norman and McGrath constitute a serious bummer. These two women, who spent much of their careers working together at MTV Networks, were role models not only for each other but for a couple of generations of women on the way up.
Given OWN's dire need for a terrific programmer to shape up the network, the rumor mill has McGrath as a potential successor to Norman. That's not impossible (for Oprah, nothing is), but it's very unlikely. Oprah tried to lure McGrath to OWN early on, before she met Norman, but McGrath is a die-hard New Yorker and didn't want to move her family, including a teenage daughter now in high school, to Los Angeles. Now, with Jersey Shore on MTV, you have wonder if Oprah would hire the woman who gave us the gift of Snooki? For what it's worth (a TV ratings bonanza), Oprah remains a McGrath fan, I'm told. But the notion that McGrath would move from a media behemoth -- including MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and more -- to troubled OWN is unrealistic. "There's not a remote possibility that Judy will do it," says a friend of McGrath.
For the time being -- up to a year -- OWN's 50-50 owners, Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications (DISCA), have installed Discovery COO Peter Liguori as interim chief. And the search for a new CEO will begin in earnest this fall, after Oprah wraps up her syndicated talk show, moves to California, and drills into OWN's leadership dilemma. People close to OWN tell me that she and Discovery CEO David Zaslav would not rule out candidates she considered before hiring Norman. Besides McGrath, that cast includes Lifetime/History Channel boss Nancy Dubuc; Susan Lyne, who once co-headed ABC Entertainment and now chairs online retailer Gilt Groupe; and former VH1 boss John Sykes.
Nothing against Sykes and Liguori -- they are guys who get it. But Oprah would be wise to choose a woman. Lisa Ling, whose Our America with Lisa Ling is one of OWN's few hit shows, is featured in Miss Representation and says in the film: "No one is going to stand up for the interests of women except other women."
Even more importantly as female clout in media falters, filmmaker Newsom notes, "You can't be what you can't see." All the more reason for Oprah, as the true queen of media told me last fall, to embrace her "next act" as a businesswoman.
As I told you on Friday, there's apparently no truth to the rumors that NBC Universal (GE) exec Lauren Zalaznick, who built Bravo and oversees Oxygen and more there, has been negotiating for a top job at MTV (VIAB).
After the Postcard ran, Jim Citrin, the prominent Spencer Stuart recruiter who was spotted lunching with Zalaznick at Michael's (and thus fed the rumor mill, unintentionally) popped me an email. "Too funny," MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 14, 2009 12:23 PM ET
Chester Higgins Jr. - The New York Times/Redux
Rumors are spreading across the Internet that NBC Universal executive Lauren Zalaznick is headed to MTV.
"There is absolutely no truth to these rumors," says Cameron Blanchard, SVP of communications for NBCU's Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks--the unit, including the Bravo network, that Zalaznick oversees.
The response from Viacom (VIAB), MTV's owner: "There's no truth to the rumors," Carole Robinson, EVP of communications MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 11, 2009 1:57 PM ET
"I don't think you're going to have those anymore. Bigness isn't that great an asset anymore."
-- Tom Freston, former Viacom (VIAB) CEO, in a Reuters story about the waning influence of media moguls. These titans are being upstaged by the darlings of digital, like Facebook's Marc Zuckerberg and Twitter's Evan Williams. Old and new media alike are gathered this week at the Allen & Co. media summit in Sun Valley, MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Jul 9, 2009 6:27 PM ET
Here's the third and final segment of Tom Freston's 2007 commencement speech at Emerson College. In earlier posts, Viacom's (VIAB) former CEO shared career lessons and detailed the first two "things you're going to want to be able to say you've done if ever you are called upon to impart wisdom upon the young." Here are Nos. 3 and 4 on that list, along with Freston's warning about what could MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - May 29, 2009 12:02 PM ET
Here's part two of Tom Freston's 2007 commencement speech at Emerson College. In yesterday's post, the former Viacom (VIAB) CEO shared the story of the sudden turn in his storied media career. Here Freston explains the first two things "you're going to want to be able to say you've done if ever you are called upon to impart wisdom upon the young."
One. First and foremost: You're going to want to MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - May 28, 2009 12:24 PM ET
It's that time of year, so we're sharing one of our favorite commencement speeches with you: Tom Freston's 2007 address at Emerson College.
Pattie Sellers' exclusive profile of Freston, "The Most Wanted Man on the Planet," tells the story of a man who had built MTV and Viacom's (VIAB) vast cable empire, got fired by chairman Sumner Redstone, walked away with $60 million in severance -- and actually knew what MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - May 27, 2009 1:27 PM ET
"Make sure the people closest to the problem do the talking."
-- Geraldine Laybourne, founder of Oxygen Media, which she sold to NBC Universal (GE) for close to $1 billion in 2007. On Wednesday Laybourne hosted mentees from the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership at her home in Manhattan for a lively discussion about a range of topics -- from why there is so little international news MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - May 20, 2009 6:55 PM ET
This was a week for fallen heroes and flailing leaders.
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner disappointed with too few details on the new bank bailout.
On Wednesday the bank CEOs got flogged in Washington - one more indignity after schlepping there on the Delta Shuttle or Amtrak's Acela.
President Obama scored with the $789 billion stimulus bill. But it emerged, after plenty of compromise, leaner than most economists had hoped for. Obama's MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 13, 2009 3:45 PM ET
While the global economic crisis consumes our focus, did you realize that Afghanistan is sliding into greater chaos? Yesterday, on the eve of U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke's visit, Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen attacked three government sites in Kabul and killed 19 people.
Personally, the news out of Kabul captivates me because I've been there. It was January 2003, and I was part of the first official delegation of women - MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 12, 2009 3:17 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
