(joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery; Warner Bros. Discovery holds a controlling stake, while Harpo is considered a "significant" “minority” shareholder)
The company's origins can trace back to 1985 when Oprah appeared in The Color Purple. Winfrey founded her own company in 1986.
Oprah Winfrey got her roots in 1988 when Harpo Productions had to acquire her eponymous talk show from ABC O&O WLS-TV in Chicago, and automatically renewed its deal with King World Productions, who held minority interest, which was set to expire in 1991.[5]
Harpo Productions' subsidiaries consist of Harpo Print, the company's publishing house, and a minority interest in cable network Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Harpo originally owned 50% of OWN along with Discovery Communications, which purchased 24.5% of OWN in 2017[6][7] and a further 20.5% in 2020,[8] leaving Harpo with 5% ownership.[6][7]
Past subsidiaries include Harpo Films, the company's film studio which shut down in early 2013, and Harpo Radio, the company's radio broadcasting division that shuttered on January 1, 2015.[9] The company was previously based in Chicago, with Harpo Studios situated in the West Loop neighborhood. The building was demolished in 2016, and new headquarters for McDonald's opened on the site in 2018.[10]
In January 2021, it was announced that Harpo Productions will produce an Oprah Winfrey documentary for Apple TV+.[11] That documentary series became known as The Me You Can't See, which Winfrey co-hosts with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
Together with Hearst Magazines, Harpo Print, LLC publishes O, The Oprah Magazine.[13] The company also published O at Home, which Hearst officially folded in 2008 after a four-year run.[14] In July 2020, it was announced that O, The Oprah Magazine will end its regular print edition after the December 2020 issue.[15][16] The December 2020 of O Magazine featured an article where Oprah thanked readers and also acknowledged it was the magazine's "final monthly print edition."[17]
Former properties
Harpo Studios
Marquee above entrance at the former Harpo Studios in Chicago (on a site now used by McDonald's as its global headquarters)
Harpo Studios logo sign banners located on the Washington St. side of the main studio in Chicago, Illinois
Harpo Studios was the home of The Oprah Winfrey Show from January 15, 1990. located in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. The studio also housed The Rosie Show, an American evening television talk show which was hosted and produced by actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell, airing on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Harpo Studios has Emmy Award–winning teams in production designs, lighting, camerawork, editing, audio direction and graphic design. It also served as the location for the set of The Women of Brewster Place. Scenes from Beloved were also filmed on a set in Harpo Studios. The studio was sold to developer Sterling Bay in 2014 and was demolished in 2016.[18] The site would be home to the new global headquarters of McDonald's.
The land where the production studio stood once housed the 2nd Regiment Armory that was used as a makeshift morgue for victims of the capsizing of the steamer SS Eastland.[19] The 88,000-square-foot (8,200 m2) facility was renovated and opened in the late 1980s for her show.[20]
Founded in 1993, Harpo Films, Inc. was the biggest division of Harpo Productions, run by Kate Forte for 18 years. It was an active supplier of motion pictures, developing and producing award-winning features and long-form television programs, including the "Oprah Winfrey Presents" telefilms for the ABC television network. Harpo Films was based in Los Angeles, California.
In late 2008, Harpo Films signed an exclusive output pact
with HBO.[21] Previously, Harpo Films had a deal with ABC, which included production of Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day.[21] In February 2013, Harpo Films was shut down, citing that "the demand for long-form projects, especially on the broadcast side, has dried out."[22] Many of its employees were expected to move on to Harpo Studios' new scripted series division.[22] A small number of films already in production were released under the Harpo Films banner in 2014. Since then, the label has appeared irregularly on various films for which Winfrey has served as a producer.
The Water Man (2021) (as producer; co-production with ShivHans Pictures and Yoruba Saxon Productions; distributed by RLJE Films in United States and Internationally by Netflix)
Harpo Radio, Inc. was the holding company for the Oprah & Friends channel (156 on XM Satellite Radio). Oprah & Friends featured a broad range of daily and weekly programming on a variety of topics including self-improvement, nutrition, fitness, parenting, health, home, finance, and current events hosted by personalities from The Oprah Winfrey Show and O, The Oprah Magazine.
Harpo Radio, Inc. produced and broadcast the Oprah & Friends channel from an XM studio in Chicago, Illinois, from New York, New York. It shut down on January 1, 2015.[9]
