Executive at Oprah's Cable Channel Departs Suddenly
Lisa Erspamer, a co-executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show who was sent to OWN to bring Ms. Winfreys personal touch to her cable channel, has unceremoniously exited the channel.
Ms. Erspamer had worked with Ms. Winfrey for nearly 20 years. Deadline.com, which first reported the change, called her one of Ms. Winfreys closest and most trusted executives.
An OWN spokeswoman said that Ms. Ersparmer was leaving the company by mutual agreement to pursue other opportunities.
The news was interpreted on Thursday as another sign of OWNs struggles to find its footing in a crowded cable landscape. Another senior executive, Rod Aissa, departed OWN this month and moved to Oxygen.
Back in 2009, when Ms. Winfrey was still hosting her daytime talk show, Ms. Erspamer was transferred to OWN to be its chief creative officer. This is an injection of Oprahs DNA into OWN, Christina Norman, who was the chief executive officer of OWN, said at that time.
OWN first appeared on television in January 2011, and about six months later, amid disappointing ratings, Ms. Winfrey took over as the chief executive and the chief creative officer. Ms. Erspamer remained at the channel as a top executive.
In the interim, OWN is bringing in Rita Mullin, the senior vice president of content strategy for Discovery Fit & Health. She will work with OWN on programming and development, the channel spokeswoman said, and will continue in her role at Fit & Health.
Fit & Health was established by Discovery a few months after the channel that had similar content, Discovery Health, was superseded ! by OWN.< /p>