After launching in 2000 through a partnership with Hearst, O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine has amassed a dozen ASME nods and won numerous accolades. Although it has some heavy newsstand competition, O‘s health editor Jihan Thompson said the pub differentiates itself in its service to readers: “[O] really has this positive, uplifting tone that I find is really the mission of the magazine.”

About half of the pub’s content is freelance written and, lucky for you enterprising scribes, the pub is now accepting pitches for many of its sections. Get details on what to pitch, plus contact info for editors in How To Pitch: O, The Oprah Magazine. [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

Welcome back to another Cover Battle, FishbowlNY’s weekly event pitting magazine covers against each other. Today we have O, The Oprah Magazine versus The New York Times Magazine.

For its latest issue O, well, okay, we’re going to be honest: We only picked this cover because it’s absolutely hilarious. What the hell is going on here? “Surprise, Oprah’s home!” Yo Oprah, being that you’re Oprah, it’s impossible to surprise anyone, even if you’re emerging from behind a door floating in space.

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If only he had enough hours in a day. That’s the most challenging part of Adam Glassman‘s gig as creative director of O: The Oprah Magazine, a post where he’s constantly navigating the worlds of graphic design, fashion and media. In the latest installment of Mediabistro’s So What Do You Do? series, Glassman recalls his groundbreaking decision to use real women over fashion models.

“I don’t want to say that we don’t ever use models because there are times that we do, but as we speak to these three generations of women, how can you do that?” he said. “You need something that is going to appeal to everyone. So I started using women of all ages, and not just all ages, but really all shapes. And I thought that was really key. Even Oprah thought I was nuts in the beginning. She was like, ‘You really want to do fashion on real people?’ And I said, ‘Yes, why not? You do it on the show. You show your people in makeovers; you have it in the audience. Let’s try it.’”

Read the full interview in So What Do You Do, Adam Glassman, Creative Director at O Magazine?

Here’s a look at what FishbowlNY stories made the most buzz this week.

1. NY1′s Pat Kiernan (left) Auditions for Dream Job, Co-Hosting Live, March 6
2. Sue Simmons Out at WNBC After More Than Three Decades, March 7
3. Nick Cannon, Former NOW Morning Host, Battling Autoimmune Disease, March 5
4. O, The Oprah Magazine Has No Love for Stedman, March 8
5. WNYW’s Julie Chang Handicaps American Idol, March 7
6. Veteran Sports Anchor Len Berman Resurfaces at Channel 5, March 2

Keep up-to-date with the latest FishbowlNY news. Click here to sign-up for the FishbowlNY daily newsletter, bringing you our articles each afternoon directly to your inbox.



On the right is the April edition of O, The Oprah Magazine. It’s the first food issue, which is a great idea. Everyone wants to know what Oprah cooks, and inside the magazine she explains what she and her longtime partner, Stedman, cook together. It’s a cute little interview in which we learn that Oprah makes Stedman something called a “Love Sandwich.”

“It became the Love Sandwich because I first started making it just for Stedman,” Oprah explains. “I’ve only made it for a couple of other people, so if you’ve had me make the Love Sandwich for you, you have to be somebody I really care about.” Awww! Oprah really does have a strong connection with Stedman.

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Oprah hasn’t had the same zing behind her name since she left her show and started OWN. Somehow, shows such as “Ryan and Tatum: The O’Neals” have failed to grab the public’s attention, and OWN’s ratings have taken a beating. Now it appears that Oprah’s decline is impacting O, The Oprah Magazine as well.

According to The New York Post, ad pages for its August issue are down a whopping 31 percent, and pages for its September issue are down 18 percent. An O spokesperson says everything is fine, of course. She told the Post that people still want their Oprah fix, and the magazine is “the best place for fans who miss the show to stay engaged with the brand.”

While that might be true, if Oprah isn’t personally handing out the magazines to consumers (and maybe yelling out “You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!” too) there might not be enough power behind the brand to make people care.

Jennifer Rainey Marquez has been hired by Parade as senior editor. Marquez is responsible for managing for all health and medical coverage.

Marquez comes to Parade from O: The Oprah Magazine, where she was senior health editor in charge of conceiving and editing all health coverage. Prior to that, she was senior health editor for Women’s Health and Woman’s Day. She began her career as an editorial assistant at Mademoiselle.   

“Jennifer comes to us with an impressive wealth of experience in the field, along with an innate interest in the health issues that are most relevant to our 70 million weekly readers, ” says editorial director Maggie Murphy.  “We’re thrilled to have her on board.”

Marquez is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia.

TVNewser: Vanity Fair intern Thomas Kaplan is going to watch 32 hours of cable news over four days next week. Torture? Or actual work?

WWD: O The Oprah Magazine is getting a new look along with it’s new editor-in-chief. Design director Kerry Robertson has departed the magazine and will be replaced — at least for an interim period — by Robert Priest, who formerly worked at Portfolio. O‘s editor-in-chief Susan Reed recently left after less than a year, and she has been replaced by Susan Casey.

Media Ink: Greenspun Media Group prez Michael Carr has left the company, leaving Jason Binn, the founder of Gotham and Los Angeles Confidential (among other titles,) in charge of the company he once ran as Niche Media.

Wall Street Journal: Advertising agencies have had a tough year, but they say things will turn around soon. Stay optimistic!