By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
June 21, 2000
You know that old adage, “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken?” Well, O, The Oprah Magazine and Real Simple aren’t listening.
Just a few months after their splashy debuts, the well-received, very high-profile lifestyle magazines are replacing their top editors.
Citing a desire to spend more time with her family, O editor-in-chief Ellen Kunes announced that she would be resigning after just one issue had hit the newsstands. The premier issue of O proved so popular that a second run of 500,000 copies went to press after the initial run of 1.1 million magazines sold out.
The split apparently is an amicable one, with Kunes staying on until her successor is found.
The situation is less clear at Real Simple, which boasts a circulation of 400,000. Though the publication is standing by its contention that managing editor Susan Wyland resigned after overseeing three issues, it has been reported in publications such as the Wall Street Journal that she was fired from her post.
Carrie Tuhy, formerly an assistant managing editor at In Style, will serve as Real Simple’s acting managing editor.
Given the popularity of the fledgling publications with both readers and advertisers, the departures come as a surprise.
“This has been an amazing experience working with Oprah and putting this magazine together,” says Kunes. “Watching it become this huge has been the ultimate thrill for me. But it’s a 24-hour job because it is such an enormous success. And I’m just not in the situation in my life to do that. [My] decision was based on my situation and also what’s best for the magazine going forward. It’s not simply that it was an editor-in-chief position. We’re talking about a launch where you have to make everything go from 0 to 100 very quickly.
“But I’m here to make certain that the transition will be smooth. We’re working on the third issue now. And there’s still a possibility that I will consult for the magazine. Anything and everything is possible.”
Meanwhile, Real Simple stresses that the potential to expand their magazine’s initial concept was the primary reason it split with Wyland.
“Susan did three issues for us and she did a great job,” says Andy Sareyan, publisher of Real Simple. “But the truth is, she had a vision that was somewhat different. I think [editor-in-chief] Norm Pearlstine determined that we would be better served by an editor whose vision was more encompassing and could fully capitalize on the premise of this magazine.”
He said that the magazine’s dedication to simplifying the lives of working women would remain the same. But beyond that, Sareyan wouldn’t commit to which columns would remain, and which would be retired.
You can bet, though, that articles such as a no-nonsense approach to scrubbing bathrooms–which was championed by Wyland–won’t make the table of contents any time soon.
It’s that simple.
Contributing: Janet Rausa
The second issue of O, The Oprah Magazine is on newsstands now featuring–who else?–Winfrey on the cover. Resplendent in a fabulous red outfit, the talk show hostess and namesake of the magazine conducts an in-depth interview with Jane Fonda. The actress and activist talks about her separation from media tycoon Ted Turner, her fight to overcome bulimia and why she doesn’t miss Hollywood.
If you’ve seen Winfrey’s talk show, then the magazine’s format will come as no surprise. O validates women with stories of empowerment and working together to achieve results. For instance, in Sheila Ellison’s article, “My Life Didn’t End After Divorce,” Ellison writes, “I’d been so consumed with healing my pain that I’d left minimal space for developing new interests.”
Even regular guests on Winfrey’s chat show are prominently featured as regular columnists. There’s Dr. Phil McGraw dispensing relationship advice in “Tell It Like It Is.” And spunky financial analyst Suze Orman helps readers confront money fears in “Financial Freedom.”
If you only read two columns, pick these. Both experts address the problems succinctly and offer do-able solutions.
This issue’s theme addresses the “disease to please.”
Winfrey, who met up with Fonda in Atlanta, begins the interview not with a question, but a statement: “I’ve read that, like me, you’ve always struggled with the disease to please.”
Winfrey touches on this subject again in a personal essay where she writes, “You don’t know what a genuine yes feels like if you’re used to saying yes to everything. When it’s right, your whole body feels it.”
And Shay Youngblood writes in her first-person article that “for years, I was a `yes’ woman. I did everything for everyone, even when it left me unhappy. What I craved is what no one could give me: unconditional approval. I finally freed myself_and you can do the same.”
There’s also an inspiring story on getting fit called “I Get Fit (With Help from My Friends)” that is meant to encourage women to get in shape for life, rather than crash dieting for quick results. When Winfrey noticed that one of her staffers had become increasingly unhappy with her weight and with her life, she offered help.
“A group of us at Harpo had been discussing our goals for living more healthfully, and we knew it was time to get serious,” Winfrey writes.
“When the show went on hiatus last summer, I thought, Why not host a spa week for the group at my farm in Indiana? We’d spend the week exercising and eating light (but well) and, in the process, relax, rejuventate and have some girlfriend-style fun, surrounded by people we trust.”
The staffer lost 90 pounds. It took a year, but she kept the weight off. The moral of the story being that quick fixes are great, but not permanent.
The downer to that story, though, is that Winfrey will never invite most of us to a spa week at her farm in Indiana and enjoy her chef’s nutritious, but tasty meals, or work out with her hunky personal trainer.
At 274 pages, there’s plenty of room for how-to stories about getting your life in order, from inside (meditation) and out (organizing dresser drawers). Been there. Not doing that.
But one of the most enjoyable pieces had nothing to do with words. Carly Simon’s Polaroid journal is a charming alternative to a diary or gratitude journal.
