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Oprah owns her power, takes the CEO job

By
Patricia Sellers
Patricia Sellers
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By
Patricia Sellers
Patricia Sellers
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July 13, 2011, 9:05 PM ET

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

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By Patricia Sellers
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