Oprah's new magazine "O" brings soul to publishing badly in need of humility.

                                                     Something About O



New York City has been abuzz of late with the sounds of powerful women
leaving an impression.  Senate candidate Hillary Clinton has left her mark,
mainly on the Mayor’s back, as she pushes ahead of him in the polls and in
the opinion of oddsmakers outside Lucy’s Place on 8th Avenue and 42nd
Street. Hillary is 5 to 2 at post time, which is an improvement over two
weeks ago when she was ahead by literally a nose. 

And Oprah Winfrey, whose large image greets people entering and leaving the
Lincoln and Holland Tunnels as well as those crossing the George
Washington, Brooklyn, and Williamsburg Bridges. In fact Oprah’s face is
advertised thousands of times along the entire route of the New York
Marathon--which is not until November-- beginning in Staten Island. No word
on whether she’ll participate.

So ubiquitous is her photograph that Dave Letterman joked the only place
you can’t see Oprah is at the post office. 

The reason for this Oprah mania is her new magazine named O, but only after
dozens of focus groups suggested this would be the most recognized and
accepted title. This is not surprising because all focus group participants
were from her daily talk show. The sessions were held prior to the show and
were taped, as per Ms. Winfrey’s instructions. Participants also had a sign
a lifetime pledge never to talk about the experience. This is in keeping
with Ms. Winfrey’s corporate policy to protect her privacy and make sure
she still enjoys all First Amendment freedoms. 

With all the outside noise associated with the title, it is easy to ignore
that the magazine is a breakthrough concept dealing with soul. And just to
underscore how powerful soul is as a marketing idea, the publisher allowed
166 advertising pages to co-exist in O alongside summary articles on
getting, keeping, overhauling, reprimanding, renting, leasing,and investing
in soul.

In fact, there is no doubt that editorial dominates O because, unlike other
less soulful magazines, the Table of Contents appears on page 2, a
remarkable sacrifice of advertising dollars in the interest of the reader.
That the reader has to wait another 50+ pages for the first real editorial
morsel does not devalue the overall effort to put the reader first. 

O, which is published by the Hearst Corporation, takes pains to remind the
reader that this is a different magazine in more ways than one. For
example, O has dozens of photographs of Ms. Winfrey doing a variety of
household chores such as cooking, cleaning, watering, pruning, and
vacuuming soul. In addition there are photos of her on vacation, walking
the dog, exercising (“Pumping Up Soul”), and reading soulful books, all
from her book club.

The overall impression is that this magazine has a personal touch and
intimacy that others can only hope to emulate. On every page there is the
sense that Oprah is present, that her sensibility is reflected from the
Caesar salad to the kitchen sink. 

No one doubts that O is destined to be a very big, profitable, soulful
magazine. 

The oddsmakers at Lucy’s Place, not regular readers of anything except
comic books, think Ms. Winfrey has bigger plans. The guess is that, since
she has a television show, web site, book club, and magazine, she has her
eye on the Presidency in 2004.   

Unless Mrs. Clinton spends more time at Lucy’s, she is not yet aware of
this development.
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