Oprah On Oprah

With that realization Winfrey is now finding ways to strike a balance. She's extended the syndication contract on her talk show until 2004. But she's ushered in a stable of regular on-air experts to lighten her on-air responsibilities. She has also reduced her role in Oxygen Media, which stumbled out of the gate after it was launched last year. Though flush with funding, it is struggling for distribution and recently cut programs and laid off employees. She is giving up classroom teaching, but she's reworking her leadership curriculum for use on the Internet, a solution that frees her from the drudgery of grading. And while she still sees room for much improvement at O, the easing of creative tensions has allowed her to enjoy the buzz about the magazine.

Before hitting the treadmill and jumping into her day, Winfrey pulls out a piece of personal stationery inscribed with one of her favorite quotations. It's from 19th-century transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." And with just the faintest hint of a smile, she signals that there is a lot more of Oprah yet to come.

JOAN RAYMOND, BRET BEGUN, ANA FIGUEROA AND JULIE HALPERT

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