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