I’ve always considered Oprah Winfrey insipid and her entire empire an offense against our natural human critical faculties. Apparently she provides entertainment and enlightenment to a substantial number of people, but it’s rather sad to think how far down a person must be if Oprah can actually enlighten them. I particularly dislike her smarmy demeanor and superficial politics, seemingly so compassionate and caring but actually merely smug and tyrannical. Nonetheless, she sells.
But she sells a lot less than she used to, in at least one business. While sales of U.S. magazines were down by an average of 6.3 percent during the first half of this year, and subscriptions dropped by 0.3 percent, Oprah’s O magazine fell much farther: subscriptions fell by 1.7 percent and single copy sales were down by 17 percent.
I’d like to think that the Oprah phenomenon has run its course and is following the overall trend in the communications media, where the bigger players are tumbling and smaller, more consumer-friendly ones are taking over, but I suspect we still have a lot more Oprah in our future.
Alas….
Magazines used to be full of information–words. Now they are full of pictures. Andy Warhol has triumphed.
Even encyclopedias are now stuffed with pictures and knowledge (proceeding from words) has been cut back.
Pretty soon we are going to be living in the dystopian world Richard Brautigan created in In Watermelon Sugar–a world in which words have been minimalized to the extent that all the inhabitants seem to be mentally retarded, including the narrator.
I guess this doesn’t have much to do with Oprah’s mag, but I am saddened to see once-fine magazines turned into intellectual fluff.
Bob