Sweeping Searchlights - research on Harpo, Inc.
Oprah is the chairman of Harpo, Inc., Harpo Productions, Inc., Harpo Films, Inc., Harpo Video, Inc and Harpo Studios, Inc. For the purposes of this research project I will focus on Harpo, Inc. Oprah began her broadcasting at WVOL radio career in Nashville, while still in high school. At age 19, she became the youngest person and first African -American woman to anchor the news at Nashville's WTVF-TV. She then moved to Baltimore's WJZ-TV to co-anchor the six o'clock news and moved on to become co-host of their local talk show, People Are Talking. In 1984, Oprah moved to Chicago to host WLS-TV's morning talk show, AM Chicago. In less than a year, the show was expanded to one hour and was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The Oprah Winfrey Show
http://www.auditionagency.com/tv/oprah_winfrey.htm
The broadcasting landscape was forever changed in 1986, when
The Oprah Winfrey Show entered national syndication, becoming the
highest-rated talk show in television history. In 1988, she established Harpo
Studios, a production facility in Chicago, making her the third woman in the
American entertainment industry (after Mary Pickford and Lucille Ball) to own
her own studio.
The Oprah Winfrey Show has remained the number one talk show for 18
consecutive seasons*. Produced by her own production company, Harpo Productions,
Inc., the show is seen by an estimated 30 million viewers a week in the United
States** and is broadcast internationally in 109 countries.
http://www.oprah.com/about/press/about_press_bio.jhtml
Harpo, Inc. is located at 110 N Carpenter in Chicago, Illinois. Harpo , Inc. is a Television and film production, magazine publishing and online media company. Worldwide Harpo, Inc has 263 full-time employees.
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?page_id=1612&format=list
Employees of the parent company of Winfrey's production studio, Harpo Inc., are barred from talking or writing about Winfrey's personal or business affairs and those of her company for the rest of their lives. Elizabeth Coady, a former senior associate producer at Harpo, recently challenged the contract when she announced she wanted to write a book about her experience working at Harpo before she quit in March 1998. Coady lost the case and has no plans to appeal the ruling.
Oprah to Underlings: Shut Your Mouths!
by Emily Farache
Apr 17, 2000 http://www.eonline.com/News?Items/Pf/0,1527,6327,00.html
and
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HOWBIZ/News/04/17/showbuzz/
In 1998 the U.S. Circuit of Appeals upheld a verdict by the federal jury that rejected cattlemen's claims against talk show host Oprah Winfrey, her production companies Harpo Production Inc. and King World Production and family farm activist Howard Lyman. U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ruled that Winfrey and her co-defendants could not be sued under the state's food disparagement law, meaning the cattlemen had to prove that Winfrey deliberately or recklessly made false statement with the intent to hurt the cattle business.
http://www.electricarrow.com/CARP/agbiz/agex-65.html
I found it very difficult to find negative publicity about Harpo, Inc. online. I am sure this is because the employees are banned from talking about the company. Who else besides the employees would have all of the juicy gossip and insider secrets. Unfortunately, I unable to find information about any company scandals.