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News Oprah Winfrey on Diet, Gains Weight Watchers Deal Oprah Winfrey By JOSEPH PISANI AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey, who has publicly struggled with her weight for decades, is going on a diet again. But this time she stands to gain a lot of money from her efforts. Weight Watchers said Monday that it signed a five- year deal with the former talk show host. Winfrey, a co-owner of OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, is paying about $43.2 million for a 10 percent stake in the weight loss company. The deal is already paying off: Weight Watchers shares more than doubled after the partnership was announced, The company has been hurt by the popularity of fitness trackers and other health apps. MyFitnessPal lets users track steps, work- outs and the amount of cal- ories they eat for free on its app. Buying a FitBit track- er unlocks similar free on- line tools. Weight Watchers charges for its online food tracking, and weekly meet- ings and weigh ins have been a hallmark of its plan. Its shares were down 73 percent for the year through Friday. The company’s earnings have fallen every year since 2011. To boost its earnings, the company announced $100 million in cost cuts earlier this year. Winfrey’s weight has yo- on the plan. Representatives for Win- frey and King did not re- spond to requests for an in- terview. Meanwhile, Weight Watchers is hoping to tap into Winfrey’s ability to turn ordinary products into the latest trend. A stamp of approval from Winfrey during her talk show was powerful. Books she recommended sky- rocketed up best seller lists and products shown on her holiday gift guide episodes would sometimes sell out. But it might be harder to get her message across now. “She has less contact with people on a daily basis,” said Craig Garthwaite, an assis- tant professor of strategy at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Man- agement. In 2012, for ex- ample, Winfrey relaunched her book club, but it doesn’t hold the same power. “Most people don’t know that it exists,” said Garthwaite. Besides the OWN net- work, Winfrey reaches fans through O, The Oprah Magazine and Oprah.com. She also has a strong social media following with more than 29 million followers on Twitter, 11 million on Facebook and 4 million on Instagram. The Weight Watchers en- dorsement is a departure for Winfrey. Throughout her talk show reign, Winfrey did not make money off endorsements, Garthwaite said. Since leaving the talk show, she has also lent her name to Starbucks Corp., which sells Oprah-branded tea drinks. Winfrey is buying about 6.4 million shares of Weight Watchers at $6.79 per share. She will also receive op- tions to buy an additional 5 percent of the company’s fully diluted shares. She is also joining the company’s board. Shares of New York-based Weight Watchers Interna- tional Inc. soared $7.13, or 105 percent, to close at $13.92 Monday. Associated Press writer Michelle Chapman in New York also contributed to this report. ‘I believe in the program so much I decided to invest in the company’ earning Winfrey about $45 million on paper. Winfrey will use the Weight Watchers mobile app and work with a per- sonal coach, the company said. She has also agreed to let Weight Watchers use her name, image and likeness for its products and services. Additionally, she will make appearances on the compa- ny’s behalf. “Weight Watchers has giv- en me the tools to begin to make the lasting shift that I and so many of us who are struggling with weight have longed for,” Winfrey said in a statement. “I believe in the program so much I decided to invest in the company and partner in its evolution.” Weight Watchers is no stranger to celebrities. It has paid singers Jessica Simp- son and Jennifer Hudson to promote its plan. But the deal with Winfrey is a shift to focus on overall health and wellness, rather than just dropping pounds. “We are expanding our purpose from focusing on weight loss alone to more broadly helping people lead a healthier, happier life,” said Weight Watchers Pres- ident and CEO Jim Cham- bers said in a statement. yoed over the years, and she’s been very open public- ly about her struggles with dieting. In fact, weight was a fre- quent subject of her talk show, which ended nearly five years ago after 25 years on the air. In 1988, a thin Winfrey famously walked out on stage wheeling 67 pounds of fat in a wagon, representing the weight she lost. But her weight has fluc- tuated over time. Her weight was still an issue as “The Oprah Win- frey Show” came to an end. She told the TV interview- er Barbara Walters that one of her goals was to “make peace with the whole weight thing.” Since then, Winfrey has talked about being uncom- fortable with being the sub- ject on the cover of her mag- azine because of her weight gain. Winfrey can now trade weight loss tips with her best friend, Gayle King. The host of TV news program “CBS This Morning” told her Instagram followers five weeks ago that she joined Weight Watchers. Last week, King indicated in an Instagram post that she had lost more than seven pounds October 21, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 9
