The Oprah-Obama '08 bumper sticker was meant to be only a lark. Oprah Winfrey, the nation's wealthiest African American and host of an afternoon television program, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama last May. How powerful can an association with Winfrey be? What Winfrey may do for Mr. Obama, like she does with books in her Oprah's Book Club is the stuff of marketing legend. Between 1996 to 2002, titles recommended by "Oprah's Book Club" typically resulted in sales of more than a million copies, a staggering number considering that a typical novel might be judged a success with 20,000 sales. And she's done it again...online.
More than 1 million copies of financial adviser Suze Orman's "Women & Money" were downloaded since the announcement last week on Winfrey's television show that the e-book edition would be available for free on her website for a period of 33 hours. The download offer "has built excitement for Suze's book across all formats," Julie Grau, the book's publisher, said in a statement. The publishing community has endlessly debated the effects of making text available online, with some saying that free downloading is a valuable promotional tool and others worrying that sales for paper editions would be harmed.
The offer for "Women & Money," originally released a year ago by Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House, Inc., has not kept people from buying the traditional version. As of Saturday, the book ranked No. 6 on Amazon.com. The paper edition of "The 9-11 Commission Report," published in 2004 by W.W. Norton and Co., was a best seller for months. Just having the Oprah name tied to anything is probably worth more than any other check that she could write. Between 1996 to 2002, titles recommended by "Oprah's Book Club" typically resulted in sales of more than a million copies, a staggering number considering that a typical novel might be judged a success with 20,000 sales.
Among the weapons in Winfrey's arsenal: the television program that reaches 8.4 million viewers each weekday afternoon, according to the most recent Nielsen numbers. Her Web site reaches 2.3 unique viewers each month, "O, the Oprah Magazine," has a circulation of 2 million, she circulates a weekly newsletter to 420,000 fans and 360,000 people have subscribed to her Web site for daily "Oprah Alerts" by e-mail. Yikes. Tell me she doesn't have the golden touch!
You can't laugh off the fact that she can sway many, many people. And we're talking about people who hang on her every word. Her purpose in getting people to buy the book, and getting them to read it, was the intention behind this offer. If it works with books, it could work with the Presidency. The Big "O" can deliver a constituency to the marketplace, no question. What's that say about us? Looks like she could be the "second First Lady" in the White House. Maybe she'd have a room called the Harpo room! Hmmmm.![]()
The Oprah-Obama '08 bumper sticker was meant to be only a lark. Oprah Winfrey, the nation's wealthiest African American and host of an afternoon television program, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama last May. How powerful can an association with Winfrey be? What Winfrey may do for Mr. Obama, like she does with books in her Oprah's Book Club is the stuff of marketing legend. Between 1996 to 2002, titles recommended by "Oprah's Book Club" typically resulted in sales of more than a million copies, a staggering number considering that a typical novel might be judged a success with 20,000 sales. And she's done it again...online.
More than 1 million copies of financial adviser Suze Orman's "Women & Money" were downloaded since the announcement last week on Winfrey's television show that the e-book edition would be available for free on her website for a period of 33 hours. The download offer "has built excitement for Suze's book across all formats," Julie Grau, the book's publisher, said in a statement. The publishing community has endlessly debated the effects of making text available online, with some saying that free downloading is a valuable promotional tool and others worrying that sales for paper editions would be harmed.
The offer for "Women & Money," originally released a year ago by Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House, Inc., has not kept people from buying the traditional version. As of Saturday, the book ranked No. 6 on Amazon.com. The paper edition of "The 9-11 Commission Report," published in 2004 by W.W. Norton and Co., was a best seller for months. Just having the Oprah name tied to anything is probably worth more than any other check that she could write. Between 1996 to 2002, titles recommended by "Oprah's Book Club" typically resulted in sales of more than a million copies, a staggering number considering that a typical novel might be judged a success with 20,000 sales.
Among the weapons in Winfrey's arsenal: the television program that reaches 8.4 million viewers each weekday afternoon, according to the most recent Nielsen numbers. Her Web site reaches 2.3 unique viewers each month, "O, the Oprah Magazine," has a circulation of 2 million, she circulates a weekly newsletter to 420,000 fans and 360,000 people have subscribed to her Web site for daily "Oprah Alerts" by e-mail. Yikes. Tell me she doesn't have the golden touch!
You can't laugh off the fact that she can sway many, many people. And we're talking about people who hang on her every word. Her purpose in getting people to buy the book, and getting them to read it, was the intention behind this offer. If it works with books, it could work with the Presidency. The Big "O" can deliver a constituency to the marketplace, no question. What's that say about us? Looks like she could be the "second First Lady" in the White House. Maybe she'd have a room called the Harpo room! Hmmmm.
