Oprah’s Network, Magazine and Web Site All Losing Viewers

The Hollywood Reporter is running a story this week on the various enterprises still run by the ex-queen of daytime viewing; Oprah Winfrey. And none of it looks good for the lady once known as the most powerful woman in America. Viewership is dropping at her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), magazine subscriptions are falling, and fewer people are stopping by her web site. All is not bad news for Oprah however as this week she also received, according to the New York Times, an honorary Oscar at the Governor's Awards.

In the Reporter story, columnist Georg Szalai finds that Oprah's projects are all slowly sliding downhill, a process that apparently started shortly after her syndicated talk fest went off the air. Ad pages, for example at O, The Oprah Magazine, rose 4.1 percent when she was still on the air, then nosedived nineteen percent since that time which happened because sales of the magazine dipped by 256,000 copies. Things aren't any better at oprah.com, where hits have declined eighteen percent since Oprah went off the air.

It's the Oprah network though that has been getting all the press of late, with ratings so low that many of the shows on the outlet don't even appear in the Neilson ratings. This will change of course as most industry analysts predict that viewership will veer dramatically upwards as Oprah begins to appear on some of the shows on her network. Though, how much of a bump the network will get from her presence is anybody's guess. So far, no one is really surprised at the low ratings, as Oprah decided to take a much needed break after saying goodbye to her loyal followers on daytime television.

It's doubtful Oprah is too worried though, she has more money than some small countries and if none of her current projects work out, she can always move somewhere quiet, holding on to the Oscar she's won for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for her charitable work in both the movies and in real life as part of her efforts in South Africa and New Orleans.

Despite the number of months that OWN has been on the air, it's far too early to call the venture a failure as many in Hollywood have been doing for months. Oprah has been counted out before, and look how wrong all the so-called experts were before. It's entirely possible that OWN could improve its ratings significantly once Oprah gives it her full attention, and if that happens, her other properties are likely to follow.