Oprah’s exit: Who gets hurt the most?

When Oprah Winfrey moves her talk show from network TV to her own cable network in 2011, it will reshape the landscape of afternoon television. After 25 years on the air, the immensely popular program has become an economic powerhouse. Who stands to lose the most in Oprah’s big switch? (Watch a CNN discussion about Oprah's declining ratings)

It’s bad news for CBS and ABC: Oprah's move to cable stands to cost CBS hundreds of millions of dollars "in license fees and advertising revenue," says Joe Flint in the Los Angeles Times. For it's part, ABC is "probably not too happy" as many of its larger affiliates carried the show, and "it delivered a sizeable audience to their local news."

“The Oprah effect: Winners and losers”

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It’s doom for book peddlers: “The Oprah Winfrey Show will be missed in particular by the book publishing industry,” says The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog. Since she launched Oprah’s Book Club in 1996, Winfrey has singlehandedly made best-sellers of unknown writers like Edwidge Danticat and long-dead authors like William Faulkner. Without her “seal of approval,” fewer books will be sold, period.

“Oprah Winfrey’s exit: The publishing fallout”

It’s a loss for Chicago: The big loser is the Windy City, says Paige Wiser in the Chicago Sun-Times. If the rumors are true, Oprah’s ditching us “for (gasp) Los Angeles.” Not only is Oprah a local icon, she’s also an economic engine—her Harpo Studios reinvigorated Chicago’s Near West Side. “Coming off the loss of the Olympics ... and what with the Bears falling apart and the long winter ahead — what kind of effect will this have on Chicago’s morale?”

“Say it isn't so-prah”