Why Oprah turned her back on Chicago media

Of course, it all makes perfect sense: Why would one of the richest, most powerful women alive — with a top-rated talk show, a successful magazine, a thriving production company, a flourishing Internet enterprise, a growing satellite radio venture and her very own cable network — deign to bother dealing with media people she neither trusts nor controls?

There's another question implicit in the paragraph that Feder might have been steering clear of:

"Why would someone this rich and influential live in Chicago?"

Of all the angles regarding Oprah's big announcement, I'm most interested in how this will affect tourism and the city's reputation. An announcement like this, so soon after the Olympic debacle, has to hit doubly hard over at city hall.

Well, if the point is to focus on running a cable network, then she needs to physically be in the place where the majority of talent for that industry is: California. Like it or not, Illinois/Chicago isn't a hotbed of the TV industry, especially not if you're trying to maximize your public exposure to entertainment media.

Some people are claiming that Oprah leaving Chicago has to do with taxes, but that's completely insane. Illinois has a flat personal income tax rate of 3 percent. California has a "progressive" income tax that uses brackets (like the Federal system) that goes up to 9.3 percent at the top bracket. Also, California's cost of living is higher. In general, she's probably losing money if she moves out there, but I'm willing to bet that she's banking on the Oprah Winfrey Network taking off like a rocket.

I think it's mostly about the fact she's moving beyond becoming a personal brand to becoming an enterprise. Building a cable network takes more than what Chicago could realistically provide for Oprah. I makes sense for her to move to the coast rather than try to get people to come here.

I've always thought this about Chicago. We always seem to come behind NYC and LA in the media and entertainment industry. If you want to succeed in those industries, you pick up and head out of the Windy City, which is like a stepping stone.