How Oxygen Lost Its Ideals, and $75 Million

You've probably read by now about Oxygen Media's failure to secure "BET money" -- meaning $3 billion or so -- in its $925 million sale to NBC Universal.

But the women's cable network sold itself short in more ways than one.

I've been amusing myself with Nexis, reminiscing about the various grandiose, high-minded pronouncements Oxygen's founders -- Geraldine Laybourne, Oprah Winfrey, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach -- spouted in the days preceding its February 2000 launch.

"We are creating a brand for women who want to create or recreate their lives," Laybourne told USA Today, contrasting the Oxygen viewer with a fan of Lifetime, "who likes to be passively entertained."

"It's about not being afraid to be who you want to be," Mandabach told the New York Observer. "It's about being as fun-loving and courageous and rowdy and bold as you want to be."

Oxygen vowed in a mission statement to create "a new network that will focus on women and treat us like the busy, smart, and complex people we are." The words "inspiration" and "empowerment" got tossed around a lot. Winfrey said she "got chills" when Laybourne told her Oxygen would be about "intent and service."

Would Oprah still have gotten goosebumps had she known she was signing on for the network that would bring the world Tori & Dean: Inn Love, Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance and The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency? Maybe not. And maybe the viewers of The Bad Girls Club don't mind a little passive entertainment.

One other fun fact from those old stories: At the time of its launch, Oxygen was widely reported to have a valuation of $1 billion or slightly more. So its management team actually managed to lose $75 million in value in seven years.

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