Christina Norman Out of OWN-Was it Fair?

The saga continues at the OWN network. It debuted to great numbers, but after the curiosity with the channel wore off, the ratings have declined, and media veteran Christina Norman, who held the position as chief executive, has “exited” the channel. Some reports say she stepped down, and others say she was dismissed. I tweeted journalist Brian Stelter who wrote a piece on this shake up which you can read here, and he confirmed that she was in fact fired. (But I thought the term “dismissed” was a bit harsh and unfair.)

Winfrey made a statement in an email to the OWN staff stating "(Norman’s) hard work, passion and leadership were instrumental in getting OWN on the air.”… “Given all that we have to do, the OWN board felt it was necessary that we have a different kind of leadership in place for the next phase of OWN’s growth.” (And if you believe this there’s a nice shiny bridge I can sell you.)

I don’t believe this decision came solely from the board. Winfrey is the head of the Oprah Winfrey Network and all decisions including programming go through her. Norman did not create the programming. Her job was to execute it, as per Winfrey’s vision. Is it Norman’s fault that Winfrey’s vision isn’t attracting the numbers the channel had hoped? I don’t think so. I’m sorry Winfrey, but your channel is snooze-ville right now, and needs to be revamped. (Check out my thoughts on that here in a previous post.) I do not like the tone of this information that seems to scapegoat Norman (who was only on the job five months). You can’t build a network in five months.

I had a conversation with a few media colleagues that confirmed my suspicions that Norman’s “dismissal” quite possibly came down to a personality conflict. Word on the street says that allegedly Winfrey is surrounded by “yes men” (surprised?) and that basically, to make it plain, Norman is nobody’s puppet. Well yes when you have strong willed people working together it’s bound to get heated, but I feel Norman could have helped the channel turn around if given more time. Again, I think Winfrey needs to find a way to translate her “Living Your Best Life” brand to her channel in a way that is not only enlightening, but entertaining, and yes, again diverse. Just because Winfrey’s empire was built on the tastes of middle class white women does not mean they only want to watch themselves.

Though unfortunate, if Norman had to leave OWN, it may be better that she was in fact “dismissed” because at least then she probably got some nice walking away money. I do think the OWN channel has a bright future, but only if it makes some realistic changes that make sense to an audience who doesn’t want to sacrifice entertainment for enlightenment.

The blueprint that’s worked for The Oprah Winfrey Show hasn’t proved to work for an entire channel. So with that, Winfrey may need to be more flexible with her original plan. Because if we’ve learned anything over the past twenty five years of The Oprah Winfrey Show, sometimes you have to get out of your OWN way.

What do you think about this latest shake-up at OWN? Do you even care?

photo courtesy of NY Times