How to manage an actual online community platform, with Oprah Daily’s Pilar Guzmán

Summary

The Digiday Podcast: Managing an Actual Online Community Platform with Oprah Daily’s Pilar Guzmán

Release Date: October 22, 2024

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Introduction

In the latest episode of The Digiday Podcast, hosts Kimika McCoy and Tim Peterson delve into the evolving landscape of online communities with a special guest, Pilar Guzmán, the Editorial Director at Oprah Daily. Released on October 22, 2024, this episode provides insightful discussions on the complexities of building and managing a genuine online community platform, moving beyond the often overused term "community" to create a meaningful and engaged user base.

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The Overuse and Meaning of 'Community'

The conversation kicks off with the hosts expressing skepticism about the term "community," noting its widespread and sometimes superficial usage across various platforms.

Kimika McCoy (00:29): "You'll have to see how my smile has been turned upside down at mere mention of the word community."

Tim Peterson (00:29): "It's just become one of those terms that's cynical. Journalists, you know, it just feels like it has been co-opted to approach meaning nothing at all."

This sets the stage for exploring how Oprah Daily aims to redefine and actualize the concept of community through their dedicated platform, OPRA Insider Community.

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Oprah Daily’s OPRA Insider Community: Purpose and Features

Pilar Guzmán explains the motivation behind launching OPRA Insider Community, emphasizing the need for deeper engagement beyond traditional comment sections and social media interactions.

Pilar Guzmán (22:29): "We felt like the conversation was only going so deep and that our audience at least uniquely felt like they really wanted to talk to each other."

The platform is designed to foster meaningful conversations among subscribers, offering specialized "villages" focused on topics such as relationships, weight management, menopause, and personal growth. These villages function similarly to channels in Slack or subreddits on Reddit, allowing users to engage in niche areas of interest.

Pilar Guzmán (28:42): "It's sort of like, I think there are elements of all those things that you just described. And in some ways, it looks a little bit like if Slack and Facebook had a baby with little elements of Reddit as well."

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Building a Tangible Community Platform: Tools and User Experience

The platform integrates various interactive elements to enhance user engagement. Users can participate in live Q&A sessions with experts, attend virtual classes, and engage in real-time support exchanges.

Pilar Guzmán (28:42): "There is this opportunity to become an audience member for other engagements that are not just live."

The user experience is crafted to feel inclusive and supportive, encouraging members to share personal stories and seek advice in a controlled environment. The inclusion of Oprah Winfrey herself in the community adds a layer of authenticity and connection for users.

Pilar Guzmán (22:29): "Our fearless leader, Ms. Winfrey herself, actually is in the comments... which is something kind of the antidote to what can be the cesspool of Facebook and where people don't feel safe."

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Subscription Model: Pricing, Value Proposition, and Challenges

Access to OPRA Insider Community is subscription-based, currently priced at a discounted $35 per year from the usual $55. Pilar acknowledges the challenge of justifying paid content in a market flooded with free information.

Pilar Guzmán (31:29): "The membership is inclusive of the whole thing. The membership is inclusive of viewings and learnings from the live classes, and the community aspect."

The subscription model not only supports the platform financially but also acts as a filter to ensure that members are genuinely interested in engaging constructively, thereby maintaining the community's integrity and safety.

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Community Management: Staffing, Moderation, and Ensuring Safety

Managing a vibrant and safe online community requires significant resources. Oprah Daily adopts an "all hands on deck" approach, with team members taking shifts to monitor and moderate interactions continuously.

Pilar Guzmán (37:22): "We're all sort of in this 24/7 universe and we're excited about it. So there's, you know, it doesn't feel like work right now because it's so the level of intimacy and vulnerability that people have."

The platform employs both manual and automated moderation tools to handle inappropriate content, ensuring that the environment remains supportive and free from harassment or toxic behavior.

Pilar Guzmán (40:34): "We have really also some swear words and political stuff. We have to manage that more manually."

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Handling Sensitive Topics: Politics, Mental Health, and Guardrails

One of the significant challenges discussed is managing sensitive topics such as politics and mental health within the community. Pilar emphasizes the importance of maintaining a safe space by setting clear guidelines and fostering a tone of support and understanding.

Pilar Guzmán (42:50): "We have historically steered clear of politics for this very reason because we want this to be a safe space for people to talk about their relationships and their mental health."

The platform aims to balance free expression with the need to prevent divisive or harmful discussions, particularly around polarized issues like politics. This involves proactive moderation and encouraging conversations that align with the community's supportive ethos.

Pilar Guzmán (47:59): "We're probably going to draw a pretty firm line around political discussion. I think we're really trying to manage people's anxiety on both sides of the aisle."

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Future Plans and Developments

Looking ahead, Oprah Daily plans to continuously evolve the OPRA Insider Community by incorporating more interactive features and expanding expert engagement. Future initiatives include interactive creativity sessions and real-time responses to current events, ensuring that the community remains dynamic and responsive to its members' needs.

Pilar Guzmán (52:35): "There are lots of little things and we kind of want to keep it that way for now because I think it's sort of it's a nice, you can dip in, dip out. It's very like low commitment in that sense and very informal."

The platform's growth is closely monitored to scale its management resources effectively, ensuring that the quality and safety of the community are maintained as membership numbers increase.

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Conclusion

This episode of The Digiday Podcast offers a comprehensive look into the intricacies of building and managing a genuine online community. Through Pilar Guzmán’s insights, listeners gain an understanding of the strategic efforts behind Oprah Daily’s OPRA Insider Community, highlighting the importance of meaningful engagement, careful moderation, and a strong value proposition in creating a successful digital community platform.

For those interested in the future of online communities and digital engagement strategies, this episode provides valuable perspectives on transforming audience interactions into a thriving, supportive ecosystem.

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Notable Quotes:

• Kimika McCoy (00:29): "You'll have to see how my smile has been turned upside down at mere mention of the word community."

• Pilar Guzman (22:29): "We felt like the conversation was only going so deep and that our audience at least uniquely felt like they really wanted to talk to each other."

• Pilar Guzman (28:42): "It's sort of like, I think there are elements of all those things that you just described. And in some ways, it looks a little bit like if Slack and Facebook had a baby with little elements of Reddit as well."

• Pilar Guzman (31:29): "The membership is inclusive of the whole thing. The membership is inclusive of viewings and learnings from the live classes, and the community aspect."

• Pilar Guzman (47:59): "We're probably going to draw a pretty firm line around political discussion. I think we're really trying to manage people's anxiety on both sides of the aisle."

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Listen to the full episode on Digiday to explore more insights into digital communities and the strategies behind successful online engagement.

Transcript

[Kimika McCoy]

Hello. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Digiday podcast. I'm your co host, Kimika McCoy, senior marketing reporter here at Digiday.

[Tim Peterson]

And I'm Tim Peterson, executive editor of video and Audio.

[Kimika McCoy]

Fantastic. You've got an exciting guest this weekend. We'll kick off with that and then get some news. But who are you having on the pod this week?

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, so we got Pilar Guzman, who's the editorial director at Oprah Daily. And a nice. So have you noticed a lot of companies are using the term community these days to describe customers, audiences, kind of anyone. Maybe it's like primarily on the media side of things. Creators do this too. Especially like Anyone in the YouTube ecosystem talks a lot about community, but it's just become one of those terms that's cynical. Journalists, you know, it just feels like has been co opted to approach meaning nothing at all.

[Kimika McCoy]

Yes. And I know our listeners cannot see my face right now, but if they could, they would see how my smile has been turned upside down at mere mention of the word community.

[Tim Peterson]

Okay. Yeah. So, well, Oprah Daily actually launched an actual like, community platform. It's in fact called the OPRA Insider community. And so I wanted to have Pilar on to talk about about both just this word community and how it's being used, but then like actually building and managing a real community, like not just talking about the audience that a publication has across different platforms, but actually having its own platform for upper Daily and kind of the governance that then needs to go into managing a community in a way of like managing a small town. So we go pretty deep into that. I thought it was a really interesting conversation.

[Kimika McCoy]

Nice. That'll be fun. And I like the idea of redefining what community means because sometimes, I don't know, it'll be like your local gas company being like, thanks for being part of our community. I'm like, you have a monopoly. I have no choice but to be here. But thank you.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, yeah. It's like when companies are talk about employees being part of their family, it's just like my family doesn't pay me to be part of it. That could be nice. I'm sure there are some families where that is the case, but no, let's. Can we get back to like actual definitions of these words?

[Kimika McCoy]

Words mean things, people, right?

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah. How's your weekend, Kimiko?

[Kimika McCoy]

It was pretty good. It was pretty good. Um, I actually spent a lot of my time watching Netflix, um, which is one of the here comes my trade word juicy scoops that we'll get into, um, we've got some news nuggets. But I spent a lot of my time watching Yellow Jackets binge watching the entire season one. I know the show has been around for a hot second, but it is really good. What about you?

[Tim Peterson]

I spent a lot of time Saturday night watching the Netflix recommended feed, as well as Max and Prime video. I think we even made it over to Hula. So I had a friend staying with me this weekend. Saturday night we were looking for something to watch because he had a long travel day. And we spent I think an hour and a half trying to find something to watch. So by the time we picked something, which was a movie that both of us had already seen before, I think I fell asleep like 90 seconds into it. It was just like. So instead of watching much of anything, we just saw all the options that we had and that there wasn't anything that really stood out. Which just feels like the kind of state of streaming at this point where there's just so much programming out there, but especially if you blow through a show, it's kind of like, okay, I don't know, I have so many options, but nothing to watch.

[Kimika McCoy]

You hate to see decision fatigue win. You really do.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah.

[Kimika McCoy]

But I mean, even with all of that, the one of the first things that we want to talk about for our news nuggets was actually Netflix, which had a pretty successful Q3, 2024 earnings report, even a missed password crackdown and things like that. And they've got a leg up from that content, Emily in Paris and whatnot. So talk to me about their earnings.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, I mean, Netflix, I think it was like a little over a year ago where everyone was kind of declaring, okay, Netflix has won the streaming war because they had a tough go of it in like 2022. Yeah, I believe it was where subscriber growth was really decelerating. I think there was even a period in there where they lost subscribers year over year, may have been even multiple periods. But since last year, subscriber growth has been back on the upswing. The password sharing crackdown has been a big part of that as well as rolling out the ad supported tier. Even though the ad supported tier isn't doing gangbusters just yet, it's still getting. I think they said more than half of new subscriber additions in this most recent quarter for the markets where the ad supported tier exists were people signing up for the ad supported tier. So that strategy is working of it is helping them to get new customers. And they had like 35% year over year growth in terms of ad supported subscribers. So things are going pretty well for Netflix. To what extent that's going to continue, actually, we may not know because starting next year, Netflix is no longer going to say how many subscribers it has. It's going to take that really important piece of information entirely off the table.

[Kimika McCoy]

Creating yet another walled garden. As a journalist. Love that.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, you love a black box anytime. Just lack of transparency. Fantastic.

[Kimika McCoy]

It's great. Really. I don't know. We talked a lot about the idea of the streaming wars and it seems like Netflix is pretty settled in their position, especially when you consider their competitors. But one of their competitors is Disney, who their leadership is back on the table. So we'll see kind of what that means. Um, but I feel like we talk about this every year with Bob Iger, if he's going to continue to be leadership or not. And that debate has once again made its way back to the table.

[Tim Peterson]

Yep. Yeah. So Disney announced just this morning. Okay, I know we had originally said 2025 was when we were going to do the succession handoff from Bob Iger to his replacement. Psych. We're going to do it in 2026. Instead, they did announce an actual succession handoff where they are getting a new chair. So Mark Parker, who used to be the CEO of Nike, is ceding the chairmanship to, I believe the former CEO of Morgan Stanley. Which is interesting. Going from a Nike executive to a financial services executive coming in as chair of the board. This is total, just tea leaf reading. But it feels to me, okay, you bring in finance expert as chair of the board if there's going to be some sort of M and A activity. And I think that's also been kind of a running joke with Disney and the whole CEO succession thing of like, is Bob Iger just going to stay CEO until there is no actual CEO of Disney anymore? Because they sell the company to, I don't know, someone like Apple.

[Kimika McCoy]

Yeah. Or the second coming, whichever comes first.

[Tim Peterson]

Sure, yeah. That's always on the table, as is like there always being the potential for a Disney CEO handoff. We just. Well, we did see it. It did not go well with Bob J. Pack. And so it is somewhat understandable that they're taking a lot more time this time around. It's just also like, you know, Lucy with the football.

[Kimika McCoy]

Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the M and A market, which also was something that we have on the docket list today where you're considering. Washington Post is on the hunt to acquire some businesses and kind of grow and expand under the leadership of Jeff Bez. And then I think a couple podcast episodes ago, episodes ago we talked about Mars buying Kilonova, which as once again re upped the conversation about that market. We talked about Ronan's story lately. You read it? What did you think?

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah. Ronan Shields, our senior ad tech reporter. So he had a story, I believe it was last week that we published it today on the ad tech M and A market. Because there have been a couple big ticket deals recently which kind of raised the question, especially coming off the interest rate cuts here in the US In September of, okay, is the M and A market back open? Is that heating up now that it's cheaper to borrow money? Are companies going to be looking to acquire new companies? Roninstore threw a little bit of cold water on that. It's just like, okay, there is the potential here. But according to the industry experts that he spoke to, the thinking seems to be not so much in the short term. I guess we'll have to see on that. But yeah. The New York Times also had a story last week on how the Washington Post is meeting with other publications potentially for some sort of M and A deal. I guess there was a meeting with Punchbowl News, for example, which is a political news outlet that could help the Post to kind of reinforce its bona fides when it comes to political coverage. Because the Post has fallen off a bit over the past few years. Whereas you've seen the New York Times grow a lot. And the New York Times has grown in part through acquisition. Acquiring Wordle, acquiring Wirecutter, acquiring the Athletic.

[Kimika McCoy]

Yeah. I think also in reading Ronan's story, cold water is a nice way to put it. I think the glass, the, what I walked away with is that the glass ceiling looks a lot like federal interest rates that are lower but not low enough. Right. In some cases. And then also there's a crackdown. What's, what's interesting is what's happening right now is like, you know, if, if that market hits back up at the same time the government is cracking down on monopolies. So it'll be interesting to see where those two things start to intersect.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah. And I feel like with so many things right now, I imagine a lot of companies are also just waiting to see how this election goes because we could have a very different Federal Trade Commission next year, depending on who wins the presidency.

[Kimika McCoy]

Yeah. Which the FTC also just enacted a click to cancel rule, which I don't know if that team is sleeping at night. They're pushing stuff out left and right.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah. Yeah. So they had talked about that, I think a year ago, but now they're finally adopting it as a rule, which is great because it should be just as easy to cancel subscription as it is to sign up for a subscription in the first place. And now they're making that a law, which, as someone who has way too many subscriptions and probably has kept some of those just because of how annoying it is to have to, like, if I have to call a phone number to cancel a subscription, there's now a 30% chance of me actually going through with that. Just for the fear of having to sit on hold for 10 minutes or do the thing of, you know, okay, leave a number and we'll call you back. It's just like, I hate cold calls.

[Kimika McCoy]

Yeah.

[Tim Peterson]

Even if I'm expecting them.

[Kimika McCoy]

I've heard some that are actually really, really insane where it's like, you've got to get something notarized. I'm pretty sure it's for a gym membership where you've got to get something notarized and, like, take it to them in person at the location that you signed up for. And I'm like, that's fine. Do you also want, you know, my first born maybe a little a sacrifice? I don't know.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah. That's why it's always nice when you have like a credit card that's coming up for expiration. It's like, cool, I can sign up for subscription with that credit card and then at the least, it's not going to work next time they try to charge me.

[Kimika McCoy]

Exactly, exactly. You got to find workarounds here. Definitely kind of along those lines. While this is kind of like a more. A more back and forth thing. Right. There's no, like, ruling on it, but there has been, I guess, an eyebrow raised on dynamic prices or surveillance pricing for all of subscriptions. All of the data that companies are now able to collect. You've got, like I said, some eyebrows raised about what is happening with that data. So there was representative Rashida Sleb, who in a letter on social media on X. Right. Basically expressed some concerns about Kroger, CEO at Kroger using dynamic pricing or surveillance pricing to adjust what the price tag, the digital price tag that you find in stores. Kroger has since obviously pushed back on that. But I wrote about this a couple months ago where as more data is being collected, there's concern about how companies are then using it. Right.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah. And we should probably also mention that dynamic pricing and surveillance pricing can be One in the same, but don't necessarily have to that surveillance pricing is basically a company taking advantage of dynamic pricing to its own end. So dynamic pricing being if you. This happens on Amazon sometimes where you put something in your cart you don't necessarily purchase just yet. A day or so later you get that notification of the product in your cart has gone up by $5.76 or it has gone down by $3. Dynamic pricing is basically taking that in store into brick and mortar and you can have the digital price tags in an aisle. And so the, I think the how a lot of companies talk about it and they try to talk about it as a like good thing for customers. Kroger has, you know, said as much is okay, we can drop lower prices and it's easier to lower prices. We don't have to print out a bunch of stickers to lower prices. If it's like, you know, midday or mid afternoon or we just really need to get a certain product off shelves. We can lower the prices with this dynamic pricing idea because the mechanisms in place. But then surveillance pricing is taking that capability. But then a company using it to say especially if they have facial recognition technology, if they know one of us is in the aisle and that we are more than likely to buy a specific type of peanut butter and our history with that retailer shows we only buy that peanut butter and we buy a lot of that peanut butter, then if they use a facial recognition technology to know we're in the aisle, they just jack up that price because they have a customer that they know is going to buy it and would be more inclined to say, fine, I'll pay $12 for peanut butter. Which actually isn't that ridiculous of a price of peanut butter. The price of peanut butter has just gotten so out of hand right now.

[Kimika McCoy]

That's a lot of groceries, which we've got that a crackdown there. Let's crack down on that. The price of peanut butter specifically and eggs while we're at it. You know, yes, I would, I would almost give like dynamic pricing and like surveillance pricing, like kissing cousin status. Right. There was an uproar about this with Wendy's not too long ago because you've got dynamic pricing, which is more along the lines of like what Uber does, surge pricing. When, you know, everybody's trying to escape the middle of New York for what is it, the. The first of the year. Right? Everybody's trying to leave Times Square. We've partied, we've had fun, and now they're going to charge you 9 million bajillion dollars to get back home. Whereas the surveillance pricing lists a little bit more. There's concerns about it being more nefarious. Like you said, Wendy's got some public backlash for this not too long ago, where they said they would try out dynamic pricing and quickly backtracked on that after the Internet publicly shamed them.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, because I think in those cases, when Wendy's caught flack for that over the summer, when Kroger caught flack for it most recently with the congressperson's letter, in both cases, the company said, no, we're not going to use dynamic pricing for surge pricing. We're instead going to use it to lower prices at a time. The thing with that is that may be the case, but I think the concern is companies are going to. Company capitalism is going to win out at the end of the day and so that they would be incentivized to use this for surge pricing. And we already have the example that you already mentioned of Uber, and this just enables it for everyone else.

[Kimika McCoy]

And then the last news peg that we had is Meta is once again laying people off. This is. I would. It's like a quarterly thing, but the cuts are coming after Zuckerberg declared 2023 to be the year of efficiency. So this is a follow up on that. Meta has started laying off employees across WhatsApp, Instagram and reality Labs. And part of that is going to be Threads, which brings up the conversation of kind of where Twitter's competitors are. X. I don't know how you guys refer to it. I'm calling it Twitter. That's what it is to me. But kind of where Twitter's competitors sits. I feel like every time something happens to X, there's this flush of, you know, of people that go to Threads that go to. What's the other one? Blue Sky, Macedon and. And the like. And if. I wonder if we'll see the inverse happen if Threads layoffs happen and then there's like content moderation issues, which have already been a problem and whatnot. Do we then see, you know, people flock to Threads competitors?

[Tim Peterson]

Possibly. Yeah, I think. I think it's depends on what the issues are. And are the issues any worse than every of the other platforms? Because the same time that news came out last week or around the same time as that news came out last week about the layoffs with Threads employees, among other Meta employees. Last week, X also announced that it's going to be using user data for AI and that people will be able to opt out But I believe they'll by default be opted into having all data on the platform being made available for LLMs to be trained on. And so that seemed to again, correlation is not causation, but there was a correlation of later in the week, BlueSky announced that it had added 500,000 new users in a day. So it does seem like pun absolutely intended. People are flocking to these different platforms, but they haven't necessarily settle down on anyone. I think, like the game is still very much in play.

[Kimika McCoy]

It almost seems like we're just playing ping pong, right. Just by bouncing in between all of these different platforms. And then not for nothing, all of the content moderation issues that you see on X, it's not like those don't also exist on Threads. There's been a, I think it was Business Insider that did a really, really good report on like how Threads has become like this rage bait place. And that's where like all the engagement happens. And like, I think I tweeted about like not liking crumble cookies or something like that for days. More than 400 people in my comments arguing amongst themselves about crumble cookies. So yeah, you know, who's to say kind of who, who comes out the winner and all of this? I'll tell you, it's not the user, so I'll tell you that for free.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, I mean I've, I've taken to just using Reddit and not really using any of the other platforms that we talked about right here.

[Kimika McCoy]

Curious how this shows up for brands because their big thing right now is brand safety, which is why you see them pulling back on news, investments and things like that. If people are arguing in the comments and fighting about crumble cookies, I'm curious what that means for a brand safety perspective.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, I mean, content moderation is always the big challenge with these platforms, which is like going to our interview this week with Pilar Guzman from Obra Daily. That's a lot of what we talked about because they just launched this community platform in September. They started beta testing it over the summer. I believe they started that beta test in July, but they just launched it last month. They have tens of thousands of people using it. These people have to be paid subscribers, so there is a bit of a filter there. But at the same time, seemingly any and every topic is on the table because this is supposed to be a platform for readers of Open Daily to go to, to connect with each other, to talk about what's going on in their life, to solicit help from one another, hear from experts, but it's kind of open to all facets of a person's life. And that can start to become a slippery slope in terms of people can get really personal and people have personal opinions, personal perspectives. And so someone just brings up, it can be in. And it feels like every topic these days is political in some respect. Even like sports teams that someone may root for can be taken as a political thing. So we talked a lot about how they're thinking about content moderation and trying to figure out where the guardrails should.

[Kimika McCoy]

Or shouldn't be, which sounds like a heavy lift. And also here's my trademark again, a juicy scoop with no further ado. I'll let you guys get into it.

[Tim Peterson]

Sounds good. Thanks. Kamika, Pilar, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining.

[Pilar Guzman]

Thanks for having me.

[Tim Peterson]

Absolutely. I wanted to have you on because I want to talk about this word community, which has become one of the bigger buzzwords lately among both publishers, but also creators. It just gets tossed around so much and I haven't really understood where that's coming from or to what extent this word community is more than just a euphemism for audiences or subscribers. That's me being a cynical journalist. What's your take on this?

[Pilar Guzman]

I think it's a totally fair concern and we sort of use, I think a lot of creators and publishers have used audience and community interchangeably. And I think in some ways as our sort of traditional platforms have evolved to social platforms and so on, there actually it is kind of a natural evolution. You are having a little bit more of an exchange with your audience or your subscribers or your readers, as we used to call them back in the day, or your users. And I think it starts to feel a little bit more like a community when you're kind of responding somewhat in real time in comments and whatever, that it can kind of feel that way. But I think to this very point, this was for us at Oprah Daily the impetus for wanting to launch an actual community and not just one that, not that we discount the value and the beauty of the commenting that happens either on the website or on the social platforms, but I think we were feeling that the conversation was only going so deep and that our audience at least uniquely felt like they really wanted to talk to each other. We were actually hearing this from them that they, you know, any sort of, you know, in person event that we would offer, big or small, would just be, you know, there would be so much, so much pent up demand. And we felt like given the depth of engagement we have a very, very high level of engagement on our social platforms and on our website. And also we have the benefit of our fearless leader, Ms. Winfrey herself, who actually is in the comments. It's not somebody pretending to be her, it's sort of. She's actually in there, which is always. People are always sort of like, is it really her? And it really is her. So there's something kind of, you know, and it's not all the time and certainly usually it's falling. She gives a Sunday intention to our members only community. We are as you know, both a kind of traditional media platform with a quarterly or now a twice a year magazine. And then we have our website and then our social platforms that we sort of support big sort of zeitgeisty topics, big juicy women's health topics. We sort of swarm these content areas first with a live audience activation in the hearst tower with Ms. Winfrey herself and a panel of experts and then we create a lot of content around that. So it is this sort of wonderful ecosystem that usually starts with topic and then live audience activation, then conversation around that and lots of conversation through the social platform. So we felt like the only logical next evolution was to really let them go deep on these topics. And of course the topics that we cover are ones that are near and dear to. We have a largely female audience, not exclusively, but largely female audience such as weight and menopause and the mental load and things like this that are pressing up on women daily and of all ages. And we actually reach. Our audience is quite. It's more of a psychographic than it is a demographic. And it's sort of our sweet spot was 35 to 54. And now our second largest growing audience is 18 to 34. And I actually feel like that has more to do with the sort of the fact that these are seekers, people who are constantly trying to improve their lives. And that audience is getting younger. So anyway, the community part of it was a kind of, was sort of the missing piece of the sort of three legged stool, if you will. You know, I think we had sort of, we had content, we had this sort of live audience engagement and we were missing this really, really critical piece where people could really talk to each other. Because we felt like anybody who is engaging with our products and our ecosystem, these are people who are kind of mini Oprahs in their own right. And these are people who are giving themselves tools. I mean we are kind of a, you know, a learning platform, if you will. And these are people who are constantly accumulating new tools and the way that people workshop that naturally, especially women, is talking to each other around pain points, the pain points of their lives, and maybe not the pain points, the joys of their lives as well. So the platform we launched is. We launched with a very tight kind of beta test over the summer. And we hand selected our super users, people who we felt were incredibly active and had the right spirit. They were very positive, very supportive of other members. And we, they became the Oprah Insider community, the originators of the Oprah Insider community. So they were sort of like the OGs, if you will, who came in and sort of set the culture and set the tone. And we have all sorts of guidelines around this community. And it really is very kind and gentle. And in many ways it's like the antidote to what can be the cesspool of Facebook and where people don't feel safe. And obviously some of those environments are very controlled. But we felt like we could really control this and make it safe and allow people to talk to each other. So this is everything that you can do in terms of having experts speak to people in real time and being able to respond and they can DM with each other. Everything that you can do on the Internet, we can embed in this platform. And it's only getting more robust. And there are only more tools, you know, that are being added to our toolkit.

[Tim Peterson]

Okay. So I mean, I started out by. You talk about, you know, community. It's this amorphous term. You all have built a tangible community in terms of the platform we're talking about here. And it sounds like this platform combines elements of like, message boards, comment sections, Reddit. Could you kind of break down for me and for anyone listening what the experience is like, I log onto a site or an app and then what's it all look like? What am I doing there?

[Pilar Guzman]

Yeah, so it's sort of like, I think there are elements of all those things that you just described. And in some ways it looks, it's a little bit like if Slack and Facebook had a baby with like little elements of Reddit as well. And so there is this sort of like, you know, you can kind of in the way that Slack allows you to kind of to sort of micro focus on a project at work, this allows you to focus on like, we call them villages. So there's a relationship village, there's a weight village, there's a menopause village, and then there's something just called holding space, which, you know, we're learning as we're going, which is actually really fun where people are really just taking their real life issues. Like I have this, you know, one of our members was having a big conversation with a boss and was feeling incredibly anxious and you know, everybody sort of weighed in on sort of breathing techniques and how to sort of, you know, stand in your sort of integrity as you're going into a negotiation with a bot this kind of thing. And so it's sort of like you kind of choose, for lack of a better word, like the sort of content area or the village or the people that you want to be with who are obviously workshopping a similar problem. And then you go and there's real transaction and real support. So maybe like throw in a little sort of AA in there. It's sort of. You never don't get a response. It's kind of amazing. There are like at least one, if not 10, you know, so there is a kind of, you know, people will sometimes just kind of post something like I saw this wonderful thing and wanted to share it with you all too. A very tangible thing that somebody is trying to solve for. And then you get like very like minded people who have been on this kind of Oprah journey of self discovery and finding their purpose and all the things, living your best life and how to get there. A very like minded group of people who are there to kind of workshop life alongside you.

[Tim Peterson]

Got it. Okay. And like you mentioned, community's open for anyone to join, but they do have to pay to join. There's a subscription. I think it's $55 a year right now it's discounted to $35 a year. I understand from like the Oprah Daily and the Hearst perspective why you have to have a business model for something like this. But at the same time I can imagine they're would be some pushback from readers, from audience members of like another thing I have to pay for totally to. How do I know if this is going to be worth it?

[Pilar Guzman]

Absolutely. And I actually feel like the world has conditioned us not to pay for content as much these days. You know, I mean I think that that's sort of what we're all up against as publishers and creators and editors. It's sort of, this is the way our business has gone. And I think we think long and hard about sort of what is worth a subscription. And I think in part it becomes harder and harder to justify when you can get so much lifestyle and health content for free. How do you make it premium? And I think for us it's about these classes, number one. So the membership is inclusive of the whole thing. The membership is inclusive of viewings and learnings from the life. You want classes, these sort of live audience tapings. Also you have the opportunity to become an audience member. An audience member for other engagements that you know that are not just life. You want classes. And then the other piece, of course, is the community aspect. And I think there is a need, especially in this moment when things are not so safe in these kinds of environments through other social channels. It's a bit of a safeguard. Like there is a bit of a barrier to entry. It is a. It is sort of a self selecting community. If anyone could join that isn't asking themselves, do I sort of fit the profile of what is required of this? And there's a lot of terms that go into this. And if you are that person you're signing up for it, then you've sort of bought into it, which is to say the safe space. I think that in some ways that barrier confers a level of filtering, safety, curation, monitoring. Those things cost money.

[Tim Peterson]

Right. And is that also why, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's like you can only sign up for an annual subscription. There's not a cheaper monthly subscription option, which I can imagine is another barrier to entry for some people, but also maybe keeps anyone who would be looking to troll from being like, well, if I just don't buy a cup of coffee this week, I can sign up here and I have a month to just run amok on this platform.

[Pilar Guzman]

Totally. Yeah. Well, we are always kind of experimenting with those things because I do feel like we want to give people who are maybe only interested in our longevity coverage or whatever it is, weight to kind of a la carte. That's something that we've actually been sort of playing around with and we're probably going to test because we also want to make it accessible. And it's always a thing. In the spirit of Oprah herself, she actually always wants to sort of make things available. And we do have a lot that lives in front of the paywall. And there are certain. There is a lot that lives in front of the paywall. But I think necessarily the community must live behind the paywall, at least some paywall. And I think we will continue to experiment with various levels of membership, maybe people who only want to do community and not anything else. For now, they're a bundle because we just. This is enhancement to what we were already doing. But I could see that evolving.

[Tim Peterson]

Okay, what would you be looking to inform that decision on whether to make Community kind of a standalone subscription option.

[Pilar Guzman]

I think just really to see how it grows. And I think we have been pleasantly, not really surprised, but, but delighted by how quickly it's taken off. It just suggests that something like this has been sort of missing and is needed and really is the logical extension of this brand. It's sort of. They really, really want to talk to each other. And I think, you know, with. We've already brought in experts to, you know, we have a whole lineup and we're seriously just out of the gate. So we're absolutely learning in real time. And there's something kind of wonderful even about the level of informality that this platform affords. So it doesn't have to be this totally polished produced thing, which is what we're used to doing and certainly is the legacy of this, certainly the Oprah Winfrey show. And we have that. But it sort of allows us to be a little bit more nimble and responsive in real time to things that are going on in the news cycle or in the culture. And also if we have an author coming in to talk to us and we can say, hey, come say hi to our community, it allows us to be a little bit more spontaneous and respond. We have a lot of two way conversation with our broader audience and we take the temperature and it just allows for a level of speed and for us to take advantage of this incredible network of doctors, experts, life coaches, people who are in our ecosystem, who are thrilled to participate in these because it helps them understand what's needed in the world and it allows them to try things on, test things out. So it's this safe space, but also an experimental space.

[Tim Peterson]

How many people have signed up to be part of the community so far?

[Pilar Guzman]

You know, I don't have that exact number because it's literally like a ticker. Like, you know, we had, I want to say, in the tens of thousands. Okay, so. And that's like right out of the gate, but I don't have an exact number for you.

[Tim Peterson]

That's a good sized community. Like that's a small town with a city council and a mayor and, you know, the whole shebang. So how are you all staffing up for this community? Because like managing any form of. I used to cover city council meetings and seeing community management at that level. It's not a passive undertaking.

[Pilar Guzman]

No, it really isn't. And right now it's a bit of an all hands on deck, honestly. It's like we're all sort of and I think that we will have to monitor that and plan for that for our growth because we're already sort of bursting at the seams. But that's tbd. Check in with me in six months and I'll tell you. But it's definitely something that's on the horizon and that we've been earmarking in terms of our org. Yeah, okay.

[Tim Peterson]

And so I mean this being a 247 community, people can be on the platform any time of day. As you mentioned, it's all hands on deck from the Oprah daily perspective. Are you all taking shifts? How do you actually allocate that employees are there to be moderating comments, what's getting said, making sure there's the support that people may need that maintaining this safe space as you described it for people.

[Pilar Guzman]

Yeah, this is exactly what we're solving for right now. But right now it's been all hands on deck and yes, shifts and certainly weekend shifts. That's been something that we trade off and you know, for better or worse, we are all in this 247 universe and we're excited about it. So there's, you know, it doesn't feel like work right now because it's so the level of sort of intimacy and vulnerability that people, it really is such a privilege. It's an honor to be able to kind of be the container for this. So we don't take it lightly. And there are lots of people who have like signed up who aren't participating yet. And I think they're sort of just checking it out. And then there's some very active users. And so far it doesn't feel out of control, but it probably will. We will get to the point where we're going to need more oversight and management. But right now it's sort of. There's still a vetting process. So they've sort of jumped through the hoops to get in. There is a vetting process.

[Tim Peterson]

What's that vetting process?

[Pilar Guzman]

I mean it really is just sort of like an agreement to some pretty specific rules of engagement. And I think it becomes pretty self selecting once you kind of get through those to, you know, but, and then, you know, and we monitor and certainly there's sort of a, like if we see something that doesn't feel kind or right, we will, we will flag it, we will let the person know, we'll put them on warning and that kind of thing. So it's like we don't really, I mean, you know how quickly things can become disrupted. It's like you really have to pluck it quickly. But we haven't really had that problem yet because we started tiny with like 50 people and then we've let it sort of grow.

[Tim Peterson]

Got it. And that flagging process, is that all purely manual or is there any automation there?

[Pilar Guzman]

None yet. Okay. Yeah. I mean there's some things that sort of like some things will get spiked. Certain language that hasn't happened yet. But yes, there is the capability. Is there?

[Tim Peterson]

Yes, got it. What language? Is it just swear words? Is it political language?

[Pilar Guzman]

Definitely swear words. I don't. I think there is some. There's not just swear words, but other kind of language and political stuff. We have really also that has to be done a little bit more manually.

[Tim Peterson]

What's the process there? How are we managing political content?

[Pilar Guzman]

We haven't really had to do it yet, to be honest, which is kind of just extraordinary.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, I expect that'll probably change. Like we're less than a month out from the election.

[Pilar Guzman]

We're bracing ourselves, but I also think because we've sort of controlled it, the growth of it. I think it's sort of the tone. There's been. The tone has been set and that's one of the things like that's one of the filters. We've been lucky so far. I mean, of course that happens on our social all the time. We have to monitor that, as you can imagine, especially coming out of the DNC and Oprah's appearance. And we've always been. She's always been quite centrist and self declared independent. So it's been. So we were actually expecting a lot more backlash and didn't have it. But you know how it is on social.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, because I feel like it's kind of a catch 22. Because if at some point you do kind of put a tighter grip around what kind of political content people can be saying on the platform. You'll get reaction from some people who are saying, oh, you're censoring this. Or this isn't a space for me to be completely myself and completely who I am, or free speech with people. You may have other people who, if you were to leave it completely, laissez faire, who would say, oh, this isn't the safe space that I want. My safe space is no political content. And so as you're kind of staring, because that's going to be something you're going to have to confront for the lifespan of the platform. How are you thinking about striking a balance? I don't even know if a balance can actually be Struck there.

[Pilar Guzman]

Yeah, I mean it's kind of the bajillion dollar question, isn't it? In general? The short answer is I think that we have historically steered clear of politics for this very reason because we want this to be a safe space for people to talk about their relationships and their mental health. And of course now it's like we are entering into new territory where politics has clearly infected mental health. And so it's not as easy a needle to thread as it used to be now that we are in the world of absolute polarization. But I think we have sort of held that line for a pretty long time, historically, for now a couple of decades, that this is not a place where we are talking about this. We have managed to sort of steer clear of that and we want to support largely the woman, but the person in their life and on their path to sort of growth and self realization. We tend to err on the side of that sort of intersection of storytelling and personal storytelling, sort of health journalism and kind of psycho spiritual wellness. And so to some degree it becomes a bit of a self selecting crew. And just like when we enter into holiday tables with family members on there are those who keep the peace and those who poke the bear. And I feel like our user tends to be a more keep the peace kind of person. If I can generalize, we don't have a lot of hotheads, at least that we've seen so far. Even as one can wear a different hat and be an activist. We've been lucky so far. I touch wood laminate and I think it's something that we're going to keep an eye out for. But I think we're probably going to draw a pretty firm line around political discussion. I think we're going to try to really hold true to that. I think we're really trying to manage people's anxiety on both sides of the aisle, frankly around this election because it will be devastating to one in two people no matter what side you're on. And so it's more like how do you manage your anxiety, your own mental health, the mental health of your family unit? How are you going to deal with Christmas and holidays and whatever when you're having to deal with such a fractious, not just body politic, but family dinner table, right?

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah. Because I mean I ask about politics because I think that's probably the most obvious example of this kind of challenge. But I feel like it extends to just about everything. I know entertainment, sports, sure, but even things like religion, women's rights, even among women, mental health, all of these topics where that can, that are way more polarizing today than they may have been a decade ago or at least than they felt a decade ago in some of the conversations. So I feel like with the type of community that you've built and the space that you're trying to establish and maintain for people, that almost any topic could be a polarizing topic or could go in that direction if someone were to take it that way, a member of the community were to take it that way.

[Pilar Guzman]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I think it's something that we really have to keep an eye on and make sure it doesn't go there. I think, you know, we have, we are sort of self, self defining as a place to go for some of these deeper topics like grief, you know, and like transitioning into midlife. And we really are trying to steer clear of politics because I think this needs to be the reprieve from all of that. And even if it's also to your point, it's hard to tell somebody not to speak their truth if they're just devastated by the outcome or nervous about the run up or whatever it is. But at the same time, it's definitely not one of our villages, you know, and I think we really, and it's why we're, you know, of course things will mushroom around certainly women's health and women's rights, but we try to keep it to health justice in the broadest sense of the word, without, you know, it's impossible in some cases not to go there with abortion and anything else. But so far that the tone has been set to be this incredibly supportive and not combative environment. Like, it's a very gentle group of people. The hope is that it continues to stay that way and which is why we're growing it slowly.

[Tim Peterson]

Got it. To what extent are you enlisting members of the community to help you all figure out how do we want to handle these topics? What are the guardrails we want to be putting up around certain topics or types of conversations?

[Pilar Guzman]

So as I said, we launched with this sort of cadre of super users who we have called the originators. And they are sort of the founding members of the Oprah insider community. And we actually had a lot of exchange with them in the formation of even just sort of how we decided to name these rooms, these little pods. So we actually talk to them quite a bit and get their feedback on stuff. And we're constantly fine tuning and changing things like, you know, we will enlist their feedback on a Pretty regular basis. That is a huge part of membership. That's another thing is that like, you know, the member in my. In my dream, eventually members are leading their own sort of cohorts around certain topics because, you know, with some oversight and with some tools and guidelines, that's the goal is that this thing sort of multiplies within the membership and not just with expert facilitator, although we'll have a lot of those as well. But the idea really is for them to be a part of growing it in a very meaningful. Not just on a sort of tonal level, but on a practical level.

[Tim Peterson]

Got it. Is that something where you would just go off of the people that you see interacting the most on the platform, talking with others the way that they talk with others? Or is that something you would open up to like a community, not to make this like a pseudo democracy? At the same time, I feel like a community platform is a type of government in a way.

[Pilar Guzman]

Yeah, totally. I mean, yes, if I'm understanding your question, it's sort of. You can't let it run amok, obviously. But I think it really is sort of. You see who are the most sort of helpful, engaged, thoughtful, and see what they propose, see who they can bring together. I mean, it's sort of. They become a little like troop leader, you know, it's almost like parents taking, you know, that kind of a thing, like a class parent. You know what I mean? I think that there are lots of models for this in the world, that when you see a level of commitment, kindness, kindness is just kind of the through line. We have to sort of. We don't have a lot of bombast yet that may change, but somebody who's sort of maintaining the spirit, sort of listening generously and. And being helpful. And also, it's like we're always sort of. We're having this sort of organic conversation and we will bring in articles that we've published or are publishing so that it sort of grounds it in the reporting, because that's always been our sweet spot is that sort of intersection of personal storytelling and hard journalism, hard health journalism. And it's sort of that always referring back to. Go back to the science, go back to the studies, go back to the research, go back to the experts. And then when you're armed with these tools, it actually makes the conversation not only that much richer, but much more grounded in reality.

[Tim Peterson]

I'll leave that one, because I feel like we could go on a whole tangent of what is reality anymore, because Covid and everything like that of course, I am really fascinated to see how this develops because again, as we started, I feel like so many media companies, creators talk about building communities, having communities. You all are building a very tangible community, which is what is so interesting to me is to see how it develops, how you manage it all. I'm really looking forward to hopefully talking in six months from now to see.

[Pilar Guzman]

I'm going to keep you posted.

[Tim Peterson]

Please do, please do. So before I let you go, Pilar, is there anything like you mentioned the beta over the summer, now it's officially launched, any big developments you have planned for the community through the end of this year?

[Pilar Guzman]

Apart from the programming that I mentioned, we actually have a big lineup of expert engagement. Everything from we just had Dr. Elizabeth Komen, who she's the author of all in Her Head, which is this basically medical history of the way women's health issues have been misrepresented and underdiagnosed and mistreated. And she came in and did this sort of live Q and A and she came from, we did CBS with her in the morning and then she came to the office and did this kind of wonderful Q and A. So there is this kind of beautiful real time thing that we're doing as we engage with various experts, authors, doctors that we have lined up through the end of the year and we keep adding to it. So there's not one giant reveal and also because we're still testing and controlling, but lots of surprises that are sort of coming in at the last minute, author talks, that kind of thing. And we have this Daily Creative is this new startup and they're doing this kind of like basically unlock your creativity in real time. It's like a four day activation where you come in for like 15, 20 minutes and do like a line drawing with this person who is expert, who leads them through these things. So it's like everything from the sort of hard hitting to the light, this is your brain on creativity and you actually have it in you. We do a lot of negative self talk around creativity or I can only draw stick figures or whatever or I can't even draw a stick figure. And so all of these sort of self limiting ideas that we are trying to not just write about but actually kind of put our money where our mouth is and saying okay, here's how we're going to unlock you. So there's no one big reveal to answer your question. But there are lots of little things and we kind of want to keep it that way for now because I think it's sort of it's a nice, you can dip in, dip out. It's very like low commitment in that sense and very informal. And I think that's the key is to sort of be nimble and responsive to what's happening like right then and there in the conversation. Be like, you know what we need to bring in this person. You know, let's bring in a life coach and let's. Or let's do it. We're doing a breathing exercise, you know, in the run up to the, to the election, we're just gonna do a little meditation, you know, that those kinds of little things that are not like, okay, now everybody like a two week sign up, you know, in advance. It's sort of like if you can dip in today, hop on, you know. And it just feels like, ah, they're paying attention to what's going on in this community and what we need. Big things, little things, serious things, light things, you know.

[Tim Peterson]

Awesome. Well, again, I'm excited to see how it develops. This was really fun conversation. It took me back to AP Government class, which is a compliment, I know for some people maybe that isn't a fond memory. I enjoyed it. So, Pilar, thanks so much for coming on the show. Really fun conversation.

[Pilar Guzman]

Thanks so much, Tim. Such a pleasure.

[Tim Peterson]

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Digiday podcast. If you enjoyed it, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening. Get more from Digiday with our daily newsletter sent out each weekday morning. Visit digiday.comnewsletters to sign up.