Corporate Communication

Summary

Recognized as “one of the industry’s most powerful and savvy businesswomen,” Christina Norman brought nearly two decades of broadcasting experience to her role as the new CEO of OWN (Oprah.com, 2009). Prior to joining OWN in early 2009, Norman was president of MTV, and held a prior position as president of VH1. She received industry-wide praise for diversifying programming, increasing viewership and her outstanding leadership and strategy.  Norman has been named one of the highest-ranking African-American women in the entertainment industry and has been profiled in Advertising Age’s “Media Mavens” issue.  With her credentials, Norman was the obvious choice to build the budding OWN enterprise.  Until she was fired, that is.

In a May 6, 2011 press release titled “Peter Liguori Named Interim CEO of OWN,” the network stated the new appointment reflected “a transition from a launch phase to a more long-term focus on business and creative strategy, development, and execution, following the network’s debut on January 1, 2011” (Oprah.com, 2011).  At its debut, the network delivered double-digit primetime increases over the Discovery Health channel, which OWN replaced, during the same time last year.  Although ratings seem positive, representatives from Discovery admit they are “below our expectations” (reuters.com, 2011).  Today, ratings have decreased from the network’s debut and it now barely outperforms Discovery Health (NY Times, May 2011).

In an e-mail to her staff, Oprah acknowledged Norman’s hard work but said, “Given all that we have to do, the OWN Board felt it was necessary that we have a different kind of leadership in place for the next phase of OWN’s growth” (NY Times, May 2011).

It’s obvious that the management team at OWN attribute the slow growth and low ratings to Norman.  However, some would argue that the cause was a lack of presence by Oprah Winfrey.  Since the launch of OWN, Winfrey has been winding down her talk show. Admittedly not fully engaged, in that same e-mail Winfrey said, “I will soon be able to turn my full energies to working with you all.”  A Jan. 2011 NY Times article supports this theory stating, “Nielsen data showed that about 770,000 people tuned in for the first hour of OWN on New Year’s Day.  Programs that did not feature Ms. Winfrey did not fare quite as well …” (NY Times, Jan. 2011).  The public also has opinions about why the network is crawling.

Reaction to the transition

Huffington Post- Reader Comments

• "The head spot at OWN is a temp job."

NY Times- Reader Comments

• "I'm sorry. Why is this a surprise? We are now at the point of Oprah overload!"
• "Why would this network succeed? Oprah's fans want to see Oprah, not a bunch of other shows that just happen to have her stamp of approval. I wonder if she is regretting leaving her daily talk show."
• "Or maybe the low ratings are because OWN is really bad."
• "Gosh, do you think it is because OWN's shows are lousy?"
• "Location. Location. Location. I don't even know where OWN is on the cable dial. I assume it's somewhere between channel 100 and 700. I don't normally go up that high when I'm looking for something to watch."

  As Norman alluded to in the earlier video, although the network is backed by the Oprah name, it’s still a start up venture that needed more time to flourish.  There was a lot of interest in the network in the months leading up to the launch, however, once many viewers realized it wasn’t always included in a standard cable package, interest dwindled.  Likewise, for those who can access the network, the programming options reportedly don’t appeal to as many viewers as the network expected.

OWN, should own up to its own shortcomings and realize that a change in leadership is not necessarily the fix.  It should also tune in to the opinions of viewers (or would-be viewers) and implement the necessary changes to begin repairing its reputation.  Thus far, none of this has been done.  The network’s only mention of the “transition” was through a brief press release posted on oprah.com.  There were no mentions on the company’s Facebook or Twitter pages.

Without more conversation being stimulated and controlled by the company, its reputation remains at the mercy of viewers who, according to many comments on the above-mentioned sources, are unsupportive of the new network.  Once the talk show has ended, time will tell if the public decides to continue supporting the Oprah brand at all.