LOS ANGELES – Oprah Winfrey's struggling television network, OWN, said Monday it is laying off one-fifth of its workers and restructuring its operations in New York and Los Angeles.

The decision to let 30 employees go is a "tough" one, but the economics of a start-up cable network didn't fit with OWN's cost structure, Winfrey said in a statement.

"As CEO, I have a responsibility to chart the course for long-term success for the network. To wholly achieve that long-term success, this was a necessary next step," Winfrey said.

The responsibilities of the laid-off workers will be distributed among people with the network and its venture partners, Discovery Communications and Winfrey's Harpo Studios, according to OWN.

The cable channel, which launched Jan. 1, 2011, endured a freshman year of executive turnover and missteps that proved OWN lacked a solid foundation on which to build. This was despite a Discovery Communications investment of a reported $250 million and counting.

Discovery executives will take a more active role in the channel, according to the announcement.

Neal Kirsch, chief financial officer of Discovery's U.S. networks, will move to OWN as the chief financial officer and chief operating officer, reporting to OWN presidents Erik Logan and Sheri Salata.

Another Discovery executive, Lee Bartlett, will have joint oversight of business and legal affairs with an OWN vice president, Tina Perry.

OWN started as an ambitious new platform for Winfrey after she stepped away from her long-running, top-rated daytime talk show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show." But viewership for OWN shows have been largely unimpressive, with one example being a short-lived Rosie O'Donnell talk show that was cancelled last week.

OWN got a burst of viewer attention this month for Winfrey's exclusive interview with Whitney Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina, which drew 3.5 million viewers, the channel's biggest audience to date.

From the start, OWN failed to improve on, or in some instances even match, the modest ratings and small audience earned by the low-profile Discovery Health channel it replaced.

As the new channel struggled for footing, Winfrey stepped in behind the scenes and became CEO and chief creative officer of OWN, bringing in her Harpo leadership team of Logan and Salata as presidents. She also increased her on-camera profile with "Oprah's Next Chapter."

"I would absolutely say it is and was not where I want it to be for year one," Winfrey said in December. "My focus up until (last) May was doing what I do best, which is 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' and giving that my full attention" until its conclusion.

Since September, according to OWN, it's seen a double-digit increase in ratings and a network high cumulative of 40 million viewers per month.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/03/19/oprah-winfrey-network-lays-off-one-fifth-staff/?test=latestnews#ixzz1pdgnaaZq

Thank god, hopefully she wil realize she doesn't have the magic or golden touch anymore! That's what she get's for supporting Obama publically. Karma is a Bi$%h.

or she will restructure and continue being successful

and probably never having to file bankruptcy to do it,,,,

even people that dont concur with your political choices deserve to be compensated for hard work,,,,

Hard work? Sitting on a couch talking to someone is hard work now?

Not to mention she hasn't been successful with this OWN flop, and it wont be successful.

Plus she definately hurt her career supporting the campaigner in chief.

yeah, producing television shows is just 'sitting on a couch talking to someone'....lol

OWN is still young and its success is yet to be determined

she didnt hurt her career supporting OBAma, he won in november 2008, she continued to be successful with the Oprah show until october of 2011, still ahead of all other day time talk show ratings,,,,

Yup, she's a failure.

And she makes more money in a day than you will in your lifetime.