The Oprah Effect

THE $1.4 BILLION WOMAN INFLUENCES POP CULTURE, CREATES STARS, AND DRIVES ENTIRE INDUSTRIES. HERE'S HOW SHE DOES IT

Lisa Price was at a crossroads. By 2002, Carol's Daughter, the bath and beauty products business she had founded in her Brooklyn kitchen, had hit $2 million in sales. "We were trying to decide whether to scale back to keep control of costs or find investors to keep growing," she recalls, Twenty minutes later, the phone rang. It was a producer from The Oprah Winfrey Show asking Price to come on the program.

The effect of Price's appearance was astounding: the Carol's Daughter Web site nearly crashed from the high volume of orders that came in after Oprah raved about the products. "What it did was give us a stamp of approval," Price says. The company easily attracted new investors such as Jada Pinkett Smith, celebrity endorsements from Mary J. Blige and mass market distribution in stores like Sephora.

Such is the power of Oprah. She arguably holds more sway in making--or breaking--an individual (James Frey, anyone?), a business (Carol's Daughter and hundreds more), a book (too many to mention) or an industry (the beef brouhaha in 1998) than anyone, ever, in this country--and maybe even the world. She's our $1.4 billion woman--and that's just with her sprawling media empire. Factor in her ability to subtly endorse products without ever appearing in a commercial or an ad, and her economic impact magnifies. She has made her mark on the retail landscape, seemingly fueled the exponential growth of online shopping, transformed the book industry, made giving to charity a priority for millions, and exposed new audiences to Broadway. Consider this: If every one of her 49 million viewers and 2.4 million magazine readers bought just one Oprah-sanctioned item a month, for say $10, that would equal a whopping $6.168 billion a year pumped into America's economy. That's about how much Starbucks made last year, worldwide.

OPRAH'S INFLUENCE
On a seismic scale of impact, Ms. Winfrey is a 10, with aftershocks felt at both poles. This is how her influence stacks up:

TELEVISION
The Oprah Winfrey Show, now 20 years old, has been No. I for 19 seasons. Before Oprah decided to stop submitting the show for Emmy consideration, it won 35 Emmy Awards. It is her most popular showcase, and it's broadcast to 122 countries.

The show (Harpo Productions) is the platform for her business, Harpo, Inc., which has grown and diversified. Harpo, Inc., now includes Harpo Films (Beloved, Tuesdays With Morrie, Their Eyes Were Watching God), Harpo Radio (a $55 million deal with XM satellite radio for the new Oprah & Friends channel) and Harpo Print (O, The Oprah Magazine and O at Home with Hearst), as well as a deal with Oxygen Media and the Oxygen network.

BOOKS
In a 2004 study, Brigham Young University found that Winfrey's book club recommendations had a greater influence on book sales than anything else in the history of modern publishing. Says Sara Nelson, editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly, "Oprah is getting people who were not particularly reading, to read."

It's her 59-and-counting book club picks that usually get the most press, but Oprah gets thousands of books moving in other ways. From April 2005 to April 2006,162 books got a plug on her show. Kerry McCloskey went on the show in early April 2006 touting her research on sex and passion as the best slim-down plan in her book, The Ultimate Sex Diet (True Courage Press). According to Nielsen Bookscan, the week after her appearance, McCloskey's book sales shot up 1,260 percent. Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., also got a lot of love when he appeared on the show twice in April 2006, pushing sales of his Getting the Love You Want (Owl Books) up 849 percent.

MAGAZINES
O, The Oprah Magazine was the most successful magazine launch in publishing history: It has a circulation of 2.4 million, it reaches 16.3 million total readers each month, and it's now avail able in a South African edition. Her magazines are also a lush outlet of product love, lining the coffers of thousands of vendors and retailers. Each issue of O features celebrities and experts and books and products that just ache to be purchased. The spring 2006 issue of 0 at Home, for example, showcased 71 products in one story.

PRODUCT PICKS
She doesn't do traditional endorsements. You'll never see Oprah's name on sneakers or clothes. Instead, her interest is in spreading her passions. Oprah likes to promote what she thinks is important and useful. We follow--and spend in droves. "She influences the purchase of 20 to 25 percent of all goods. I think Oprah is actually underestimated," says Michael Silverstein, coauthor of Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer (Portfolio). Oprah's product bacchanal hits its pinnacle with "Oprah's Favorite Things--The Holiday Edition." This list of items has included everything from Burberry coats to computers and chocolate.

For every several thousand of Oprah "blessings," a few turn out not so rosy. Though her 2005 audience giveaway of brand-new Pontiac G6's was trumpeted as the epitome of successful product placement, the automotive press was not all convinced. "It was great for Oprah, but I didn't see much on Pontiac. I didn't hear her say, 'This is a Pontiac kind of day,'" said Lincoln Merrihew, managing director of automotive practice at Compete Inc., in WardsAuto.com.

Still, for most vendors, there is nothing like an Oprah blessing, says Rob Walker, the consumer columnist for The New York Times Magazine. "If you have a product, there's no better environment to be in than on Oprah. You're being treated as almost a religious artifact," he says. Large retailers, such as Sony, see a nice jump in sales, but Oprah also picks small vendors like Pamela Fitzpatrick. Her $39.99 tub of oatmeal raisin cookie dough from Chicago's gourmet grocery fox & Obel was Chosen as a Favorite Thing for holiday 2005. "It was really like winning the Academy Award," Fitzpatrick says, adding that the first 220 sales came 45 minutes into the show. They then sold around 600 tubs in the first two weeks after the show aired, and over the holidays they sold three times that many.

PHILANTHROPY
Oprah's desire to help those in need has been a lifeline to many charities and nonprofits. The Reverend Gloria White-Hammond, chairperson of the Million Voices for Darfur campaign, was certainly pleased. "Oprah's impact on the Save Darfur Coalition's effort was nothing short of tremendous," she says. According to the Coalition, donations went up 1,200 percent in the three days after Oprah highlighted their efforts on her show, and 1,600 percent more donors signed up in the same time. Translation: Many lives were saved in Darfur.

What seems to bolster her featured charities and retailers most is the limitless resource that is oprah.com. "When Oprah does something, there is an immediate 'click' impact," says Heather Dougherty, senior analyst at Nielsen//Net Ratings. For example, take the month that the Save the Darfur Coalition was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. According to Dougherty, oprah.com had 2.2 million unique visitors. "She has a very deep site. The deeper the site, the better the engagement," Dougherty says. "Other comparable sites are so small [number of visitors], we don't measure them."

F.O.O.'S (FRIENDS OF OPRAH)
Oprah's protégés serve both as brand extensions and as a fire under her seat. Dr. Phil's success has been its own phenomenon--he now has the second-highest-rated talk show and eight best-selling books, is the new spokesperson for Match.com, and has prime-time TV specials and the Dr. Phil Foundation. Others who've benefited include her crowned boy wonder, interior designer Nate Berkus, with his own home line at Linens 'N Things; Bob Greene, Oprah's personal trainer and fitness guru; Suze Orman money diva; Mehmet Oz, M.D., health guru; and her two newest additions, Robin Smith, love and relationship psychologist, and Rachael Ray, the smiley TV chef (whose new show is produced by Harpo Productions) and magazine powerhouse in her own right. And, of course, there's Gayle King--Oprah's BFF and editor-at-large of O, The Oprah Magazine, who, at press time, was still churning in the rumor mill as a possible cohost to join ABC talkfest The View.

ETC., ETC., ETC.
What's left? Ah yes, Broadway. Ms. Winfrey's producer credit for Alice Walker's The Color Purple on Broadway surely had something to do with its outrageous opening ticket sales--S16 million in two months--and possibly its 11 Tony nominations. But, more than the bursting moneybags and accolades for the show (this in a business with a 75 percent failure rate), what's significant is, as with her book club, Ms. Winfrey has brought new audiences to Broadway.

With every venture, Oprah somehow finds more to do, more needs to fill, and more ways to make and use her money--and her power. The Live Your Best Life speaking tour and on line multimedia workshop is a standing-room-only event every year. She's released a six-disc DVD set of her Twentieth Anniversary Celebration with all proceeds going to the Angel Network, her charitable foundation that has raised $50 million in five years and $10 million for Hurricane Katrina victims. And in October 2005 she launched a Child Predator Watch List that has captured four sexual predators and has rewarded those who located them with $100,000. It is undeniable. Oprah has the Midas touch.

So what will Her Highness turn into gold next? We're all watching.

*Based on our $6.168 billion estimate.

THE BIG O HOW INFLUENTIAL IS SHE? LET US COUNT THE WAYS…

IF OPRAH WERE… A NATION her 51.4 million weekly viewers and magazine readers would equal more than the population of Canada (33 million), Spain (40.3 million) or Argentina (39.9 million).

IF OPRAH WERE… A PILE OF GOLD she'd be equal to 24,000 14-karat gold bars.

IF OPRAH WERE… BLING she'd be eight times the equivalent of 373 100-karat pear-shaped, flawless diamonds (the most expensive ever sold).

cnnmoney.com reported in January that Oprah ranked second only to Google as the biggest brand newsmaker of 2006. Behind Ms. Winfrey were Amazon, eBay and iPod.

IF OPRAH WERE… A NATIONAL ECONOMY what she'd pump into the U.S. economy would be slightly more than the GDP of the Bahamas.*

By: Ulrich, Carmen Wong, Essence, Oct2006

The Deporter

By Dinesh Vora

The mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska in USA was under tremendous pressure to get rid of huge pigeon population corrupting the city with pigeon drops. All the efforts failed and mayor was fighting for his political life.

Suddenly a man shows up with a Red Pigeon on his head and says, "Mayor I will charge you one million dollars to get rid of them all with my magical Red Pigeon but absolutely no questions asked. If you ask any question I will punish you with a bill of ten million dollars."

The mayor agreed. The guy climbed up the tallest building in town, made romantic pigeon sounds, chanted a Mantra and set his Red Pigeon free. The red pigeon started whirling around the city and what do you know, thousands and thousands of pigeons followed this Amitabh Bachchan of Pigeons. The Red pigeon flew towards Pacific Ocean and came back without any followers. The pigeons tired of flying that far fell in stormy waters, disappeared in this ultimate romantic experience of their life.

Hurrah, the city was without the dirty pigeons. The mayor, smiling ear to ear, could not resist the temptation of knowledge, saving and promoting his career further. He fell on his knees to this stranger and pleaded, "Here keep ten million dollars instead of one for deporting all pigeons to the ocean. but, please, please tell me do you have any RED Mexican."

http://www.stories.vaty.net/

A Master Traveler Tells All

Insurance salesman Dean Burri is on the road 300 days a year, and relishes every liftoff and layover. Why? We tagged along to find out

EXACTLY 24 HOURS and four cities after we awoke, Dean Burri volunteered his assessment of my traveling skills. "I'd call you a travel enthusiast," he said, taking a puff of a Cuban cigar at a bar inside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. "You understand the fundamentals of being a road warrior, but you still make too many amateur mistakes." It was a harsh critique, but that was exactly why I had spent the last two days trailing Burri. Last year the 41-year-old insurance salesman (he peddles policies to Catholic institutions like parishes and convents) spent almost 300 days on the road--that's six weeks in the air. He logged more than 400,000 miles, and this year he will probably beat that. Burri doesn't even own a car--he rents one when he lands at home in Clearwater, Fla., where he lives with his wife and six kids. "I would just as soon fly to Hong Kong for Chinese food than order delivery from the place around the corner," Burri says. This was somebody I could learn from.

DON'T GET STUCK

Several hours before our flight from Newark to Pittsburgh is to depart, Burri sends me an e-mail. It details the FAA ground-delay program for that day, the weather report in New Jersey, and--based on some detective work on Continental's website--the route our incoming plane is taking. And having identified a few trouble spots, Burri had checked availability on two backup flights. He swears that this type of worst-case scenario planning is vital--and countless times has saved him from getting stuck. Burri prefers morning flights, since they're more likely to be on time. He also avoids the last flight of the day (if it's canceled, you're out of luck).

UPGRADES 101

Call it Burri's law: If a first-class ticket isn't much more than double coach, he'll buy it. Otherwise, the hunt for underbooked planes (where he has a better chance of an upgrade) begins. Seat maps on airline websites can tell you that flights through Cleveland, for example, are often less crowded up-front. Sometimes he'll even book two one-way tickets on different carriers to see which one will upgrade him (he pays a change fee to use the second ticket later).

THE SECRET OF A ONE-BAG TRIP

"Laundry!" Burri proclaims loudly in the mezzanine at Newark. And hotel laundry is what allows Burri to carry only one piece of luggage: a medium-sized Tumi shoulder bag. Inside is one extra suit, four dress shirts, underwear, socks, a laptop, work documents, and a wireless router. His suits are custom-made by Alfred Dunhill in London with a military-grade lining to handle the stress of a heavy shoulder bag. Inside the jacket are five custom pockets for gear, including cellphone, passport, and two travel humidors.

TRYING TO KEEP UP

Shadowing Burri in an airport is like following a Porsche around in a Toyota Corolla. Though he's 6-foot-5 and 340 pounds, he has the agility of a left tackle. When I ask how he always manages to be first in line for everything, he looks at me quizzically. Clearly this is not a skill that can be explained to mere travel "enthusiasts" like myself.

THE PERKS KICK IN

One reason Burri finds traveling such a snap is that he's a member of Continental's "Chairman's Circle." It's a top-secret, invite-only frequent-flier program usually reserved for VIPs and CEOs, and members get a special reservations number and priority upgrades, and can request an airport escort whenever they fly. Being a top customer, and a rather opinionated fellow, Burri has also become a sounding board for Continental execs (they recently asked him to try their new phone voice prompting system). But even if you don't have Continental CEO Larry Kellner's private e-mail, as Burri does, he insists the fastest route to first-class service is to make airline employees laugh. When he first boards and the flight attendant asks him if he wants a drink, he invariably responds, "Can I have a seat-belt extender on the rocks?" He always gets a smile.

MAKING TIME FLY

Arriving in Vegas from Houston, I finally realize Burri loves to travel because he sees it as a game. Later this month, he tells me, he's flying from L.A. to Honolulu to Guam to Manila to Taiwan to Macao to Hong Kong to Seoul to Tokyo to Newark and back to Tampa, all in seven days. What's more, he's doing it for fun: The idea is to hit airports he hasn't been to before. How will he spend all that air time? Apparently the endless strategizing doesn't just apply to travel, which explains Burri's new obsession with Bollywood DVDs. "They give you the most bang for your buck," he says gleefully. "I bought 800 movies for $4 each!"

6 STEPS TO A BETTER TRIP
Avoid Bad Weather Pick the right hubs to change planes. In general, the farther south the airport is, the better. Never book the last flight of the day.
Be Funny If you make airline employees laugh, you'll get far better service.
Skip Full Flights If you want to upgrade, check seat maps on airline websites and choose flights that have the most open seats in first class. Midday and night flights often have more availability.
Don't Fight the Law Avoid booking the aisles in first class, since that's where air marshals often sit. You could get bumped.
Carry On Only amateurs check bags when they're traveling for business. Burri uses hotel laundry to keep going for weeks at a time.
Charge It Buy one adapter that can charge everything. (Burri likes Igo Juice, igo.com.)

CARRYON LIP BALM, LOTION, AND MORE
Modern Flight
Most business travelers wouldn't dream of checking their bags. But now, thanks to stringent regulations about what liquids and creams can be carried on, more travelers have resigned themselves to bad breath and messy hair. That just wasn't an option for Jodi Nass. A recently retired 25-year Wall Street vet, she heard about the initial TSA ban and "a light bulb went off in my head." The solution? A line of travel products called Fly Dry that could pass security. "I knew in the old days there wasn't liquid toothpaste or soaps," says Nass. That led her to an old-time soapmaker in Texas. "These things have been around forever, but no one had really wanted them," she says. At first, the shampoo and conditioning bars look scary, but a recent test showed they work nicely (men and women's kits are $49 at flydry.net). And for men, Smart Fixx H20 Styling Strips turn into gel with a splash of warm water--perfect for hairstyling on the run ($9 at most drugstores). — B.G.

By: Gimbel, Barney, Fortune, 10/16/2006

Feedback

Net neutrality's double standard I have to disagree strongly with Bill Machrone's opinion piece ("Demand Net Neutrality!," August 22, page 58). I shouldn't be surprised that you, as a tech industry magazine, have a self-serving, knee-jerk reaction in support of the online giants on Net neutrality, Your parochial interests aside, Net neutrality is hugely hypocritical for an industry that has long opposed government regulation of tech and the Internet as unnecessary and contrary to market forces. Now when the entrenched online giants fear the emergence of broadband competition, they change their tune and run to hide behind the government's regulatory skirt for protection from competition.

In its rawest sense, the effect of Net neutrality is a blatant competitive double standard. eBay with Skype, Microsoft with its collaboration software. Yahoo! with its voice product, and Google with click-to-call all want the business freedom to compete, converge, and integrate into communications, but want to make it illegal for communications companies to compete, converge, and integrate into tech and the Internet. How does one-way competition serve consumers or innovation? How is it good for the government to choose market winners and losers instead of consumers choosing them through the marketplace?

The tech industry's naïveté and shortsightedness on Net neutrality is staggering. They think they can invite the government into their sector to hyper-regulate an emerging adjacent industry-competitor, and that the same regulatory appetite won't threaten tech and the Internet. It's playing with fire. I guess regulatory ignorance is bliss.

Be careful what you wish for….

— Scott Cleland

Scott Cleland is the chairman of Netcom petition.org, which he describes as a Net neutrality e-forum funded by broadband companies.

ENERGY CONSERVATION AND SAFETY
Regarding Lance Ulanoff's "Top Tips for Energy Saving" (go.pcmag.com/ulanoffenergy), my dad worked for 44 years for the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) starting in 1934. I was born in 1936 and heard the "turn out the lights" song all my life. I sing it to my wife, sang it to my kids, and still sing it when they visit. (Kids who once knew enough to turn out lights develop bad habits in college where no one seems to care; they also believe that dad will support the college-learned 20- to 30-minute shower habit for them, their spouses, and their kids. He won't.)

I have also replaced my incandescent bulbs with fluorescent screw-ins. But in doing so, I encountered one problem. One 20+-watt fluorescent is in our timer-controlled lamp. One day we smelled a terrible odor, like something that was burning. We looked through the house and discovered that the innards of the 20+-watt fluorescent bulb were boiling up around the bulb's tubes. Unlike an incandescent bulb, this fluorescent did not burn out. It burned! Just what might have happened had we been away from home, I don't know. But people should be aware that such a thing can happen.

— Lowell D. Taylor

Wow, Lowell, that's a scary story. I think I'll go double-check all my fluorescent bulbs. — LU

TECHNOLOGY AS STUPIDITY'S "CANARY"
Regarding Lance Ulanoff's column, "Technology for Idiots" (go.pcmag.com/techidiots), I don't think technology creates an epidemic of stupidity, nor do I believe that it is ruining anyone's life by stripping them of their privacy or their security. The problem is human nature. There are a small number of basic human flaws that apply whether you use technology or not:

People tend to be intellectually lazy. They don't want to have to learn anything new, they don't want to study or read, and in fact, they don't even want to have to think about anything. I'm not talking about technologists here — we're a different breed. We like to learn. But most people actively resist anything new or different.
People tend to enjoy being bad. If a scammer can get away with something, it's likely that he'll at least try. There's an inbuilt tendency toward mischief in a large number of people.
People like new, interesting, shiny things. They want them for the status these things are perceived to supply. Of course (see #1), people can't be bothered to learn how to use their shiny toys properly. Most people are using equipment that is way outside their skill level.
I believe that technology isn't causing stupidity; it's acting as a "canary in a coal mine" and drawing our attention to the stupidity that already surrounds us. "Hey!" we ask, "where did all this stupidity come from all of a sudden???" It was here all along, we just didn't notice it until the complexity of modern life made it impossible to ignore.

As to what we can do, I'm not sure that there's anything we can do. We might just have to wait until a younger generation gets old enough to take over the reins. Having been raised in our complex society, they're more adaptable. Until then, I suspect that things will be a little bit hairy.

— Philip Perry

You make some very good points, Philip, although I'd tend to disagree with you on #2. I believe that people would rather be good.

— LU

STEALTH PANDAS
The caption under the whale photo in Connected Traveler (September 5, page 24) claims that the San Diego zoo is the home to the only giant pandas in the U.S. I already knew that Atlanta has two, and a quick Google search reveals that there are nine giant pandas in four zoos in the U.S. — Frank Eskridge

Thank you for pointing this out, Frank, We have also received letters on the subject from irate pandas in Atlanta, Memphis, and Washington.

CORRECTIONS & AMPLIFICATIONS
The picture on page 68 of our August 22 issue identified as the Sennheiser PX 100 (which are supraural headphones, not earbuds as the text calls them) actually shows Shure E4c earbuds.

By: Clelend, Scott, Taylor, Lowell D., L. U., Perry, Philip, Eskridge, Frank, PC Magazine, 10/3/2006

The Must-See Photos Of The Month Sun Burn

Solar storms can knock out power on Earth. New satellites will help us predict where and when

Spewing billions of tons of plasma millions of miles into space, the sun's eruptions, like this explosion captured by NASA's SOHO probe, can be strikingly beautiful. But when they result in what scientists call coronal mass ejections-think seething bubbles of flung-off plasma-they can short-circuit satellites and trigger powerful magnetic shock waves that result in electrical power failures on Earth. NASA's $540-million STEREO mission, whose two satellites were scheduled to launch in late August, is designed to capture 3-D images that identify Earth-bound solar storms days before their effects reach us. Positioned at points ahead of and behind the Earth in its orbit, the satellites will work like a pair of eyes to more precisely measure a storm's size and location-and let us identify it in time to take action and prevent damage.

--Rachel Horn

LOW RIDER

One day. One bullet-shaped bike. One crazy world record

In late July, Canadian triathlete Greg Kolodziejzyk pedaled his recumbent bicycle 650 miles around a California track to break the human-powered 24-hour distance record. Equipped with food, water and waste bags, the 70-pound carbon-fiber machine is capable of hitting 60 mph on a flat straightaway. "Once you get over 12 or 15 mph, 90 percent of your pedaling effort goes to pushing air," Kolodziejzyk says. "The key to going fast under human power is to minimize the hole you punch" in the atmosphere. To build a bike that did just that, Kolodziejzyk teamed up with fairing designer Ben Eadie, who used flow-dynamics software to test dozens of designs in a virtual wind tunnel. See more details at adventuresofgreg.com.

--Tom Clynes

UNEASY BREATHING

In a disastrous year, the mining industry looks more closely at its survival gear

This picture was taken outside Pennsylvania's Twin Rocks coal mine last spring. But it could easily have been taken 25 years ago, mining technology has evolved so little since then. Miner Joe Tenerowicz is demonstrating a self-rescuer, a chemical-based oxygen-production system that provides an hour of backup air. The device, which has been the standard emergency breather for a quarter century, was the only technology available to coal workers in West Virginia's Sago Mine tragedy, which left 13 dead last January. This year has proved particularly fatal for U.S. miners; to date, 37 have died in 21 incidents, a 30 percent higher rate than in recent years. For the industry, it's been a wake-up call. Under the federal Miner Act, which went into effect in June, better devices-including replacement cartridges that increase the breathing time of existing self-rescuers and new "hybrid" units that rely on filters to deal with poor air quality-will be developed in the next two years.

--Nicole Price Fasig

By: Horn, Rachel, Clynes, Tom, Fasig, Nicole Price, Popular Science, Oct2006