Women and the Internet - Oxygen Media, Inc.

INC. OXYGEN MEDIA

Oxygen Media was co-founded in 1998 by world renowned talk show host Oprah Winfrey, television producer Carsey-Werner-Mandabach Co., and Nick-elodeon founder Geraldine Laybourne. The startup was dedicated to providing entertainment and information to modern women with its cable television and Internet offerings. Its online arm eventually included Oxygen.com, an Internet gateway for women, as well as Thriveonline, Moms Online, Girls On, ka-Ching, and Oprah.com.

Oxygen has at its roots a 1995 agreement between Winfrey and America Online (AOL), which resulted in the creation of Oprah Online, an AOL site offering information about Winfrey's show. Two years later, ABC Internet Group and Winfrey's company, Harpo Productions, created Oprah.com, the official Web site of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest rated talk show in all of television. In August of 1999, Oprah.com joined Oxygen group of Web sites. Oprah.com offered information on Oprah's Book Club and Oprah's Angel Network and vowed to help women "Live Their Best Life" by giving advice on relationships, food, mind and body, and lifestyles. Web surfers visiting Oprah.com—the site averaged over 155 million hits per month and 3,000 e-mails per day in 2000—can subscribe to Winfrey's magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine; see streaming video of post-show discussions; write in an online journal; interact with other online Oprah fans; and even email Winfrey herself.

Oprah.com was unique in that it was able to use the success of a leading television show to attract an increasing number of female Web surfers. As a result, Oprah.com became one of the most popular online destinations for women. In additional to operating a leading women's site, Winfrey also encouraged women to become Web savvy by promoting "Oprah Goes Online," a 12-part series explaining how she and friend Gayle King learned how to use the Internet themselves.

Despite the name recognition Winfrey brought to both Oprah.com and to Oxygen, the firm's Oxygen.com site drew fewer viewers than both iVillage.com and Women.com in 2000. Believing it might have diversified too broadly, the firm consolidated its online holdings into three major sites—Oxygen.com, Oprah.com, and health portal Thriveonline—in December of that year. The restructuring included cutting 65 positions. Four months later, the firm implemented a second round of layoffs, citing weak advertising sales.