(memo to Internet: middle aged women exist, please write for them, kthxbye)
Many years ago, when I was working at Joseph Beth Bookstore (where I suspect Borders stole a lot of their ops manual ideas from) management there told me that the primary demographic there was middle aged women. Middle aged women often have disposable income. Many of them are married homemakers and have tons of spare time. I suspect much of Oprah's success is built on that demographic.
If I were Oprah, I'd position her cable channel as just a part of her latest "new media" venture -- just one outlet for Oprah branded content. In her shoes, I'd make diverse investments in mobile and in TV-integrated platforms. I'd offer advertisers packages for reaching all those different outlets simultaneously. If Oprah does this, I'd recommend working with her. If she can't see this path clearly, then I'd recommend disrupting her.
My mother-in-law used to be an Oprah fan but she recently 'cut the cord' with the cable company. Personally I think people like her could really enjoy an experience like Digg or Reddit if all the stars aligned correctly.
Maybe something like reddit, but presented through things like Google TV and Apple TV. If someone can morph social media viewing/browsing into something that emulates channel surfing, then that idea will easily be worth 100's of millions.
EDIT IDEA: If Oprah doesn't have someone doing the following for her, then some group with the right CV items should hop on it! Start finding or putting key moments from shows followed by middle aged-women up on YouTube. (Oprah will make up a lot of this content.) At the same time, launch a social media site tailored for middle-aged women and create APIs so that it can be integrated with TV convergence devices.
Not only will Oprah make more money on her own content this way, she will become the middlewoman for a big chunk of the other content aimed at this demographic.
Many years ago, when I was working at Joseph Beth Bookstore (where I suspect Borders stole a lot of their ops manual ideas from) management there told me that the primary demographic there was middle aged women. Middle aged women often have disposable income. Many of them are married homemakers and have tons of spare time. I suspect much of Oprah's success is built on that demographic.
If I were Oprah, I'd position her cable channel as just a part of her latest "new media" venture -- just one outlet for Oprah branded content. In her shoes, I'd make diverse investments in mobile and in TV-integrated platforms. I'd offer advertisers packages for reaching all those different outlets simultaneously. If Oprah does this, I'd recommend working with her. If she can't see this path clearly, then I'd recommend disrupting her.