FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 7, 2009

CHICAGO — Sheri Salata, executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Erik Logan, executive vice president, Harpo, Inc., have been named presidents of Harpo Productions, Inc. The announcement was made today by Oprah Winfrey, chairman, Harpo, Inc., to whom they will report. Both Salata and Logan will remain based at Harpo Productions’ headquarters in Chicago. Tim Bennett, president of Harpo, Inc., will retire at the end of May 2010.

In their new positions, Salata and Logan will lead Harpo Productions’ efforts as the company develops new programming beyond The Oprah Winfrey Show for syndication, primetime, cable, radio, digital and emerging platforms. They will oversee the company’s original programming slate on air and in development. Salata also will continue her role as executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show through its 25th season ending in 2011.
 
“Harpo Productions is a world-class production company in Chicago and will continue on after The Oprah Winfrey Show sunsets,” said Winfrey. “Under Sheri and Erik’s leadership, I am confident in Harpo’s future and know that we will continue to create quality programming with compelling content for all platforms. Not even the sky is the limit for this company.”

“Without a doubt, Harpo has the best team in television,” said Salata. “The secret to our success is that we know how to produce programming that resonates with viewers by appealing to the very best in all of us. That’s the Harpo creative ‘magic’ that we will bring to everything that we produce.”

Said Logan, “Harpo has built its reputation on consistently first-rate content with massive audience appeal on multiple platforms. Our history of proven success, combined with our unmatched production values and our ability to cultivate talent will be key drivers of our future growth.”

Harpo Productions is the most successful production company in daytime talk, having developed or produced four of the top shows in syndication today: the award-winning The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil, and Rachael Ray as well as syndication’s latest success, The Dr. Oz Show. In addition, through its creative development team formed in 2006, Harpo creates and produces original television programming. Past primetime specials include Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball (2006), the Oprah Winfrey Oscar® Special (2007) and Building A Dream: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy (2007). In addition, it will be producing Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special (2009) airing Sunday, December 13 on ABC.


About Harpo

Harpo Productions, Inc. produces the number-one-rated, award-winning The Oprah Winfrey Show; creates and develops original TV programming for primetime, syndication and cable television; and operates Oprah.com (www.oprah.com), a premier lifestyle website. ZoCo Productions, LLC, an affiliate of Harpo Productions, Inc., and Sony Pictures Television co-produce The Dr. Oz Show. Harpo Print, LLC and Hearst Magazines publish the monthly O, The Oprah Magazine publication. Harpo Films produces feature films and, through an exclusive deal with HBO, scripted television programming.  Harpo Radio, Inc. produces Oprah Radio (XM channel 156, Sirius channel 195 as part of its “Best of XM” package) on Sirius XM Radio. A joint venture between Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a multi-platform company, will debut in January 2011 in approximately 80 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel.

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