Magazine Report: Editor of the Year

They seemed an odd match, but Oprah Winfrey and Amy Gross are on the same pageBy all accounts, Amy Gross should have blown it big time.Invited in June 2000 by Oprah Winfrey to fly with her and pal Gayle King across the country to discuss becoming the second editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine, Gross turned her down flat. Her excuse: She had a psychology class and a paper to write.Undaunted, Winfrey flew from Chicago to meet with her in a Hearst Magazines conference room in midtown Manhattan. Things were looking up, until talk turned to the dogs: Gross blurted out she was not a fan. "It was like, 'Eek!'" recalls Winfrey, who, along with her omnipresent cocker spaniels Sophie and Solomon, has two golden retrievers and two mutts. "I have this thing: If people don't like dogs, then what's wrong with them?""I thought I was going to die," says Ellen Levine, Good Housekeeping's editor in chief, who, as O's consultant, was in the meeting. "I thought it was over."As it turns out, neither Gross' priorities nor the dog debacle were deal-breakers. Winfrey respected Gross' choice to take her class. And as for the dogs, well, Winfrey says she "decided to overlook that." Gross landed the job after the first interview.Winfrey loved Gross' critique of O. She felt a connection. Her gut had told her this editor was the one. Gross also got good vibes. "It was just so easy. We were so on the same page," the editor says. "Really, what I saw as a magazine was what she was seeing."The two have become creative soulmates, forming a special bond that has helped to build one of the most successful magazines ever. Launched in April 2000 as a joint venture between Hearst and Harpo Print, the monthly offers readers a modern spiritual guide blended with the traditional women's-magazine fare of fashion, beauty and lifestyle."They found a way to bring service and empowerment together in a very contemporary way, using a powerful brand," says Renetta McCann, CEO of Starcom USA. "I'm just not sure that this is a trick that many magazines could do."It's come a long way since its 500,000-circulation launch. O's paid circ in the second half of last year rose 17.3 percent to 2.65 million, surpassing its 2.1 million rate base, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Newsstand sales increased by a whopping 38.1 percent to 995,439. Ad pages through March are up 12.6 percent to 292, reports the Mediaweek Monitor. And now, there are O spin-offs—a South African edition and, coming in May, the first of two O at Home magazines, a 600,000-circulation newsstand extension. Early conversations have also begun about developing a teen version of O, called O Girl, according to Winfrey."It's really an incredible magazine," says Hearst Magazines president Cathie Black. "Not just because it's so profitable, but because it's really a great gift for the readers every month." Helping matters, Black adds, is that Winfrey and Gross "are so much on the same wave length. They just kind of literally read each other. They are just a wonderful couple, if you will."While Winfrey and Gross, who share Adweek Magazines' honor as Editors of the Year, in many ways have much in common—the importance of spirituality in their lives, their love of beautiful things, a willingness to listen and be rational—their differences are complementary rather than divisive. Winfrey, 50, was born to a poor, unwed mother in Kosciusko, Miss., and passed from home to home before settling in Nashville with her father. After struggling for years as a television anchor and host, Winfrey hit the jackpot in 1984 when she landed at A.M. Chicago. It was there that she found her special empathic connection with an audience. Within months, she was beating Phil Donahue in local ratings. Two years later, she would launch The Oprah Winfrey Show and sign a national syndication deal with King World Productions. The show, which she owns, boasts 23 million weekly viewers and more than $300 million in revenue, and has held the No. 1 spot in daytime talk for the last 18 years. Winfrey also owns a stake in the women's cable network Oxygen and last year appeared on Forbes' list of billionaires. Rounding out her life is her longtime beau Stedman Graham—and of course, her dogs.Gross, 61, could not have had a more different path. Born in Brooklyn to a family of doctors, she was headed for a career in medicine, but physics did her in. Not knowing what to do with her life, a friend suggested she join her at Condé Nast's Glamour. One job led to another. She worked at Mademoiselle, then spent a decade at Vogue, where she was features editor. When deposed Vogue editor in chief Grace Mirabella launched her self-titled magazine at News Corp., Gross eventually followed. She went on to redesign Hachette Filipacchi Media's Elle as a top editor in 1993 and relaunch the now-defunct Mirabella (then owned by Hachette) in 1995. It was around this time that Gross became a serious student of Buddhism. Hachette was tightening the purse strings, editors were getting fired—and Gross had had enough. "I remember thinking that I would rather be living in a retreat center, earning nothing and editing their newsletter, than having this kind of life," she says. In 1997, she left the company and the business. Until Hearst came calling. For Gross, O is hardly a star turn. Winfrey is the editorial director, writes the editor's letter, and is literally and figuratively the voice and face of the magazine. As much as Winfrey is in the spotlight, Gross, who is practically telephobic, prefers to edit behind the scenes. "Amy really has a soul and she's more than her job, and yet she's unbelievably good at her job," says Kim France, editor in chief of Condé Nast's Lucky, who worked for Gross at Mirabella. "The publishing world is one in which people get very caught up in that sort of publishing talk and not much of what lies beyond that. I was so thrilled when she got that job that one of the good guys won, to see Amy get the triple cherries."WHEN GROSS JOINED O after the publication of just three issues, the magazine was suffering from growing pains. Reports surfaced that Winfrey was micromanaging and asking for last-minute changes. Former editor Ellen Kunes, now editor of Hearst's Redbook, and Winfrey were not clicking editorially and the pressure to please both Hearst and Harpo became too much. Publisher Alyce Alston, now at Fairchild Publications' W, also left after the third issue and Vanity Fair veteran Jill Seelig took her place.The changes at O were mostly in tonality and imagery. "The level of writing needed to be notched up," says Gross, though she hastens to add that elements of Kunes' structure and content are still there, including a photo spread called Breathing Space, and Something to Think About, a page on which readers can write down their deep thoughts. "I wanted the writing to be sophisticated, funny. Oprah has a very serious side to her, but she's also the most fun." She also wanted to pump up the visuals. "The magazine's strength is its sense of abundance, intense color…just to be surrounded by gorgeousness," she says. "Then I heard the story that, in the beginning, they would send her a picture of one exquisite vase, with one exquisite flower—and that is so not her style."Winfrey said just after the magazine launched that she graded it a B, on its way to a B-plus. Today, she says, O has hit the As—and on occasion, even nailed A-pluses. She points to last October's age-themed issue, which helped women ages 20 and up deal with life's changes. Also getting a top grade was February's Love issue, which offered readers stories of romance as well as extreme breakups.Gross and Winfrey did have to work out a few editorial kinks early in their relationship. Winfrey, who has final say over what goes in the magazine, had problems with some pieces "being too long and too labored," she says. Winfrey was also unhappy that the books section sported small images and brief reviews. Gross bumped up the section. "My assumption is, if she doesn't like something, I would fix it because her name's on the cover and her instincts have really done right by her," says Gross. Even so, it is a relationship of give and take. Winfrey—who won an early battle over putting the table of contents on the magazine's second page—ultimately came around to accepting more than just three or four cover lines. "I've given up on that fight," Winfrey acknowledges. Or almost. "I still, though, sometimes say, 'You have to pull back.'"The key to this successful partnership is trust. "I don't trust her just because she's an editor," Winfrey says of Gross. "I trust her because she's an editor with sound sensibilities that are very much like my own."Somewhere, Rosie O'Donnell and G+J USA Publishing executives are shaking their heads in disbelief. O'Donnell's joint venture with the publisher to create Rosie ended in disaster after a clash of creative visions, control and ego. The magazine folded in December 2002 and an ugly court battle ensued. "Are you kidding? That was so foreign to me," says Winfrey, when asked if such a war could break out at O. "I can't even imagine that happening. I don't have arguments with people. I don't have fights about creative control. I will do my very best to acquiesce unless I think it's something that's going to compromise me in a way that I don't feel is a good thing." They converse by e-mail and talk on the phone once a week, though sometimes two weeks go by before a call is made. Pages are sent to Winfrey in Chicago, digitally and via FedEx. For the past year or two, Winfrey gets a rundown of future story ideas, and reads the last two edited versions of stories and the cover lines. Along with the editor's letter, she conducts the celebrity interview and writes the back page's What I Know For Sure. Winfrey has managed to cut the time she spends working on the magazine by half, to three hours a day. This unique setup works because the glue that holds the entire operation together is King, the magazine's editor at large and Winfrey's close friend of 28 years. "Gayle is really the magic ingredient," says Levine, who was responsible for bringing the concept of O to Winfrey. "She's like a terrier for the magazine," Gross says of King. "When Oprah's copy is late, she's on the phone—and you can just see her nipping, getting it in. Gayle is selfless, egoless, tactful and fun.""I would not have been able to do this magazine without Gayle," Winfrey insists.And many question whether O could ever be done without its namesake. "I think it's a one-woman phenomenon," says Starcom's McCann. "The book lasts as long as she does."For now, her TV show is slated to run through the 2007-08 season. Though the magazine's audience is more upscale than that of her show (there is only 7 percent duplication between the show and O), Winfrey's constant, daily presence and magazine plugs clearly have helped generate an army of readers. Also integral to the magazine is Winfrey's appearance on the cover—something she is keenly aware of. "In terms of selling covers, I'm probably more marketable than a basket of fruit or some birds in a Christmas tree," says Winfrey. "The reason why everybody else has wanted me on their cover is, it sells. It's not an ego trip for me—it is work for me."Besides, she adds, booking celebrities for covers is "a nightmare from hell." Winfrey recalls the late John F. Kennedy Jr. discussing his own headaches in trying, unsuccessfully, to get Winfrey for the cover of his George magazine. "He said to me it's the worst part of his job—having to get on the phone himself, personally trying to get people to shoot the covers," she recalls. "I don't want to be in that position. Because he was John Kennedy having trouble getting it done, so I know if John Kennedy was going to have a problem, so would I. So it is, and so it will be for the time."There are, however, unforeseen events that could create instant turmoil. Just ask Martha Stewart, whose legal woes following her stock trade imbroglio have severely hurt her media empire, including her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, on whose cover she no longer appears.For the foreseeable future, Winfrey will stay on the cover. Black insists there is no contingency plan. "There really isn't," she says. "We've never experimented with another kind of cover. We may at some point, but we'll get to that in a time, or we never will.""The truth is, it's all peachy," says Gross. "We're in a very fortunate moment. We seem to be hitting the audience and pleasing them in a remarkable way." According to King, Gross may soon be pleasing her boss in a different sort of remarkable way: Rumor has it she's thinking of getting a small dog. Though that might be wishful thinking at this point. "I've gotten to the point of not disliking them," clarifies Gross. "But to get to the point of buying one is such a long way off…Maybe in 10 years, when I'm living on a farm," she says with a laugh. "Never say never." Lisa Granatstein is general editor of Mediaweek.

Brand Marketing

Magazine Report: Editor of the Year - Soul Sisters

Lisa Granatstein

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Lisa Granatstein