DAILY DOSES: Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Magazines have a new recruit — and an experienced one at that.
Pilar Guzmán is taking on the role of editorial director of Oprah Daily as of Oct. 31 and will be based in the New York office (as in the Hearst Tower with desks and people).
Guzmán cofounded The Swell membership community and media platform that was geared for women over the age of 40. Prior to that, from 2013 to 2019, she served as editor in chief of Condé Nast Traveler as the magazine expanded beyond print with a greater emphasis on digital, social and video components. She was also at one point editor in chief of Martha Stewart Living, and acted as the founding editor of Cookie, leading that magazine from 2005 through 2009. Her earlier career included working as senior editor at Real Simple.
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In this newly created post, she will be in charge of content strategy for Oprah Daily’s digital, social, video and print platforms. Making the move was an easy decision for Guzmán, who said Winfrey’s brand has been a guiding light in her many incarnations as an editor.
“For me, Oprah’s message was sort of the OG in self-care, wellness and mental well-being — all of the things that are finally taking hold and that people are finally ripe for. She was so early to that, and the [magazine] title was, too,” Guzmán said. “Those [topics] were tentpoles that I tried to infuse into every title that I worked for. With Cookie, it was not just capital ‘P’ parenting, but treating the mother, the whole woman and the whole person. There was nothing out there [at that time] in the women’s service space that tackled wholeness. I mean that not in a Super New Age-y way, but as in the whole person in the way that Oprah [Winfrey] did.”
Last year Winfrey and Hearst unveiled the digital platform Oprah Daily; O Quarterly and Oprah Daily Insider, a membership community for readers to connect live with Winfrey and other O-minded personalities, like editor at large Gayle King and creative director Adam Glassman.
Oprah Daily has 3.3 million monthly users and a social following of 4.4 million, according to a Hearst spokeswoman.
“The beautiful thing about Oprah is that the brand and the person have access to absolutely everyone,” Guzmán said, noting the now mainstream experts like podcasters Glennon Doyle and Brene Brown and psychotherapist Esther Perel, whom Winfrey “has anointed and in some cases discovered.”
Guzmán wants to leverage those relationships and interviews to cull content to deliver to consumers in ways they want to receive it. Her new team consists of a few dozen people working in video and books.
“The thing I find so exciting about this brand and this moment is that the world has finally caught up to all of these messages that Oprah has espoused forever. People are finally ready. It’s the mix of the hard-nose science to the spiritual. She really encapsulates that realm like nobody else does and has legitimized practices and disciplines whether that be psychotherapy or spirituality. What’s unprecedented is her reach,” Guzman said. “To have come from Conde Nast, where we were speaking to a specific audience, and to be able to broaden that reach is something that I am happy to return to. Now the world needs feeling and inspiration. Oprah is the person and the brand to really do that.”