OWN is heading into the upfront season as a brand on a roll. The network, named for founder and CEO Oprah Winfrey, finished 2018 as one of the top-rated cable networks among African-American women with such scripted shows as Greenleaf, Queen Sugar and The Haves and The Have Nots.

The channel, owned by Discovery Inc. and Harpo Studios, is taking a two-pronged approach to the upfront market, building on its appeal to female African-Americans while looking to attract advertisers targeting adult women age 25-54. Discovery executive vice president of national ad sales Karen Grinthal and OWN president Tina Perry spoke with Multichannel News about OWN’s positioning heading into this year’s upfronts.

MCN:What is OWN’s strategy heading into the upfront?
Karen Grinthal: I think OWN has a wonderful position in this marketplace. It is a unique brand, we speak to our audience in a way that no one else does, and I think there’s a hunger and need for the kind of connection that we bring for advertisers. The relationships and conversations are very deep … we’re solving the problem of how to speak authentically to black women and make them feel like they are seen.

Tina Perry: We’re so proud of the success that we’ve had with African-American women — we are the number one destination for African-American women because we provide a place where this important audience can see themselves reflected in our programming. 2018 was a tremendous year for us. We had five of the top 20 original scripted series on ad-supported cable among all women 25-54 and African-American women, and our hit dramas like Greenleaf, Queen Sugar and The Haves and the Have Nots continue to resonate with our audiences.

MCN:How are you positioning OWN to advertisers within the Discovery portfolio?
KG: We have the clout of being within the Discovery networks and great quality brands, and OWN stands in a separate place within the portfolio because it’s the only network that has scripted drama. We have the clout of being part of Discovery and the ability to really dig in with advertisers for all of their needs. We’re playing in two different marketplaces — we’re in the general marketplace with women 25-54 and with African-American [female] viewers. I think every category needs to reach this audience, and what’s happening is that we’re speaking to advertisers in everything from insurance to retail to auto to [pharmaceuticals] to beauty and health. Every single category knows that if you can speak authentically to and trust an audience, that’s the basis of success for them.

MCN:How will OWN look to build on the success of its scripted lineup in 2019?
TP: We are going to keep building on our successes with Greenleaf, Queen Sugar, Iyanla: Fix My Life, by just expanding the roster of storytellers we work with. I’m excited about two new dramas ahead of us, including Ambitions from Will Packer, which is a juicy, sexy nighttime soap opera drama that stars Robin Givens and will premiere in June. The next series I’m really excited about is a prestige drama that will be on our air in August, David Makes Man. [Moonlight co-writer] Tarell Alvin McCraney is the producer on that as well as Michael B. Jordan and Oprah Winfrey. On the unscripted side are two new seasons of Will Packer’s dating series Ready to Love, as well as Love & Marriage: Huntsville.

KAREN GRINTHAL

TITLE: Senior VP, National Ad Sales, Scripps Networks Interactive

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Spearheaded growth of Food Network, helped launch Cooking Channel, senior VP of marketing and communications for Turner Broadcasting Sales

QUOTE: “No one ever put a boundary in front of me and said, ‘This is your world, you’re ad sales.’ My ideas were always welcome.”

— Karen Grinthal

Karen Grinthal made a huge leap of faith nearly 19 years ago when she left a job at an established cable-programming giant to work for a fledgling programmer called Food Network.

At the time, Grinthal said that she held a prestigious position, as a senior vice president of marketing and communications at Turner Broadcasting Sales, where she had been for eight years. But she was looking for a smaller venue where she could make a real difference, a place that had the entrepreneurial spirit of a startup. Food Network fit the bill, although the career move raised eyebrows among her peers.

“I took a job that nobody could understand, because I went from being [a senior vice president] to being a sales manager, from a multi-hundred-million-dollar responsibility to a brand that had no revenue and no ratings,” said Grinthal, now senior vice president of national ad sales for Scripps Networks Interactive.

“It’s very tempting to go for the title, go for the most money, go for whatever will give you the most prestige,” she said. “And so basically, it was a question of making a decision to totally relinquish prestige and go for what I felt in my gut would make sense for me.”

TURNING FOOD INTO A POWERHOUSE

Her gamble paid off. This year Grinthal will celebrate almost two decades at Food Network. During her tenure, Food Network has evolved from a network with less than $15 million in ad revenue to one with more than $700 million in national ad billings.

The channel made celebrities of chefs — such as Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis — and turned food into a pop-culture programming genre.

“We have a star-making machine,” said Grinthal, who is credited with being smart, creative, passionate and ever-calm.

She pioneered innovative ways to integrate advertisers into Food Network programming, a change in strategy. And sponsors are offered cross-platform opportunities across TV, digital and print, via Food Network Magazine.

“I don’t know of any other ad sales executive who has meant more to a channel’s growth and success than what Karen Grinthal has meant to Food Network,” Jon Steinlauf, president of ad sales and marketing for Scripps Networks Interactive said, noting her tenure at Food began even before Scripps bought the network from Belo in 1997. “Karen’s passion, dedication, loyalty and tenure to a single TV network are unsurpassed in the annals of cable. She has literally built our ad sales business from its humble beginnings into a power brand in the ad market.”

Steinlauf said he has worked with Grinthal “side by side” for 24 years, first at Turner and then at Scripps. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Grinthal joined Turner in 1988 as an account executive and rose through the ranks to become a senior vice president of ad sales for its entertainment division. She began her career as a media planner at Doyle Dane Bernbach and then spent several years in radio sales.

BUILDING THE RECIPE FOR COOKING CHANNEL

Grinthal’s career achievements aren’t limited to Food Network. She was also instrumental in the successful 2010 relaunch of Fine Living as the Cooking Channel, a flanker brand to Food Network. Steinlauf credited Grinthal with being part of a core Scripps management team, adding that her input is sought not only on advertising but programming and company strategy, such as Cooking Channel’s creation, as well.

“We sat in a room and strategized about what it could be, and from the day that we strategized about it until we put it on the air as a full-blown network was six months,” Grinthal said. “Quite amazing.”

Her long tenure at Scripps is also an amazing feat in the TV industry. Grinthal said she and her ad-sales team — where there is little turnover — don’t get stale at the company because of the constant demand to adapt to the changing media landscape.

“The biggest challenge has been the constant reinvention and refreshment of what the brand means to advertisers,” she said.

For example, for years Food Network had a policy of zero product integration in its programming. Grinthal said she walked away from “advertisers waving money in our faces” rather than risk tarnishing the brand in its early days. Now Food Network is doing innovative partnerships and brand integrations using the filter of whether it makes sense for the advertiser and the network, and whether it makes a show better, according to Grinthal.

LANDING PRODUCT PARTNERSHIPS

One of the greatest partnerships that Food Network ever did was about eight years ago with Red Lobster, engineered by Grinthal, according to Steinlauf. During an episode of Food Network Star, contestants competed in a challenge to create a seafood dish that would be served at Red Lobster restaurants across the country as a special the very next day. The winning recipe for white chocolate tilapia was on the menu.

Back then, Karen Chester was at Red Lobster and worked with Grinthal on that product integration, which she deemed a success. Chester is now vice president of media services for Bloomin’ Brands, whose restaurants include Outback Steakhouse. That chain’s projects with Food Network have included its executive chef serving as a judge on Chopped, Chester said.

Grinthal’s willingness to be open to new ideas, and come up with ideas, “makes it a partnership that works year after year, not one and done,” with Outback enjoying “a halo effect” through its alignment with Food Network, Chester said.

The network’s explosive success has given Grinthal great satisfaction.

“It has grown exponentially from a little tiny thing to a culture-changing icon,” she said. “So that’s one element of what’s kept me here.”