Oprah Winfrey Hires Herself as CEO of OWN

I am glad that she will have a more handson approach to OWN. It is also good that she is bringing some of the Harpo staff. She has to share with her team how she envisioned her nerwork to be. I am confident that OWN will flourish into the network she envisioned.

*Oprah Winfrey will take over as chief executive officer of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network this fall, the cable channel announced today.

Winfrey will be the third CEO of the company since its debut in January. She will also become chief creative officer as the network prepares for her new talk show, “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” to debut in January 2012.

“I am ready to dedicate my full creative energy and focus as the full-time CEO of OWN,” Winfrey said in a statement.

OWN is co-owned by Winfrey and Discovery Communications Inc. Discovery Chief Operating Officer Peter Ligouri has been interim CEO of OWN since he replaced Christina Norman in May.

Norman was pushed out after Discovery CEO David Zaslav said OWN’s ratings had been “below our expectations.” Executives have said that more investments in the joint venture will depend on ratings through the next several quarters.

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