9: Interview with Geraldine Laybourne, CEO of Oxygen Media

Geraldine Laybourne is one of the most influential women in all of television. Laybourne is chairwoman and CEO of Oxygen Media and started the Oxygen channel in 2000, in partnership with Oprah Winfrey, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach. In one of my ongoing podcasts with the people who actually make the TV you watch, I talk with Laybourne-who dropped by The Chronicle when she was in San Francisco, recently--about her early days running Nickelodeon and how she turned that network into the children's powerhouse it is today, along with launching Nick At Nite and Noggin. Laybourne was also vice chairperson of MTV Networks and later a vice president at ABC/Disney. In our discussion, the element of her successful career that struck me as most interesting was that Laybourne built a cable empire out of figuring out what kids want, but she is still trying to figure out what women want, as Oxygen tries to establish an identity and build its audience. Anyway, I vowed that we'd talk to as many of the power players in the business as possible (or the ones I could stomach), and Laybourne, though maybe not the familiar name that someone like Les Moonves might be, is one heavy hitter. Enjoy.