SHARING INSPIRATION WITH MODERN READERS: OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB 2.0 LAUNCHES ONLINE MONDAY, JUNE 4 WITH ITS FIRST SELECTION, "WILD" BY CHERYL STRAYED

Interactive Book Club Engages Readers via Social Media to Create a True Community of Book Lovers

Los Angeles, Calif. and New York, NY - On Monday, June 4, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and O, The Oprah Magazine will launch Oprah's Book Club 2.0, an interactive, multi-platform reading club that harnesses the power of social media, bringing passionate readers together to discuss inspiring stories. The best-selling memoir Wild, by Cheryl Strayed (Knopf), is the club's first selection. A true story of adventure, bravery and hope, Wild is full of life lessons that have resonated with many readers, including Oprah, who is bringing its message to book lovers around the world in a modern, community-oriented way.

Starting Monday at 12 p.m. ET, special Oprah's Book Club 2.0 digital editions of Wild - with exclusive content including a reader's guide and Oprah's notes on her favorite passages - will be available for Amazon Kindle, NOOK(R) by Barnes & Noble, on the iBookstore and everywhere e-books are sold.

"This is a book club for the way people live and read today," said Sheri Salata, president of OWN. "In addition to the traditional way, we also access books on smart phones, e-readers and tablets and we talk to our friends about them through social media. Oprah's Book Club 2.0 takes the Oprah.com online community, readers of O Magazine and OWN viewers and connects them through their shared love of great books."

"Oprah's Book Club 2.0 is the perfect extension of what we do every month in O Magazine," said editor in chief Susan Casey. "We cover books in depth, and even offer the first chapters of those we feature on our iPad edition. The club is a great way to create a community and a global conversation while promoting one of the greatest pleasures: getting lost in an amazing story."

The club's first read kicks off with Oprah's interview with Strayed in the July issue of O, The Oprah Magazine (on sale June 8) andculminates just as readers are completing their journey through Wild with a simulcast of the interview airing on Sunday, July 22 at 11 a.m. ET/PT on OWN's Emmy-nominated "Super Soul Sunday," streaming live on Oprah.com and on OWN's Facebook page (facebook.com/owntv), and airing on "Oprah's Soul Series" on Oprah Radio (Sirius 204, XM 111).

Conversations about Oprah's Book Club selections will live on the Book Club hub at Oprah.com/bookclub and via mobile and social media platforms. Additional digital elements include:

· A series of webisodes featuring Oprah and Strayed will post weekly, progressing with readers as they read during the months of June and July.

· Readers will have the opportunity to answer weekly questions on Oprah.com with text or photo using Facebook and Twitter (using #oprahsbookclub). Readers will also submit questions about Wild. Oprah and Strayed will answer via video responses each week, and real-time updates will be featured on Oprah.com.

· Using Storify, Oprah.com will highlight reader tweets, Instagram photos and Facebook posts that will be curated into a social wrap up that will live on Oprah.com, providing readers with a snapshot of what participants are thinking, feeling and sharing as they read Wild together.

· Starting June 28, a map display on Oprah.com will allow readers to locate other Book Club participants around the world.

· Using the mobile messaging application GroupMe, Oprah's Book Club 2.0 will have a section where readers can create smaller book clubs with their friends to have discussion groups about the book club selections.

"I admire Oprah Winfrey tremendously, and could not be more honored and thrilled that Wild is the first selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0," said Cheryl Strayed. "When she called me out of the blue and said, 'this is Oprah,' I was astonished. It was not a call I was expecting, and I will always remember her kind words about Wild."

"It's great to have Oprah back as a champion of books. Her enthusiasm for an author's work has always been a catalyst for readers as well as a prompt for conversation," said Paul Bogaards, EVP, Knopf, the publishers of Wild. "What is especially heartening with her new book club is the social dynamic she has woven into it."

About OWN: OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK

A joint venture between Harpo, Inc. and Discovery Communications, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network is a multi-platform media company designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives. OWN debuted on January 1, 2011 on what was the Discovery Health Channel and is in approximately 85 million homes. The venture also includes the award-winning digital platform, Oprah.com.

About Super Soul Sunday

"Super Soul Sunday" (Sundays, 11 a.m. ET/PT on OWN) delivers a thought-provoking, eye-opening and inspiring program designed to help viewers awaken to their best selves and discover a deeper connection to the world around them. All-new conversations between Oprah Winfrey and top thinkers, authors, and spiritual leaders take place everywhere from an oak grove at her California home, to on location in Hawaii, India, New York, Chicago, and around the world. Exploring themes and issues including happiness, personal fulfillment, wellness, spirituality and conscious living, "Super Soul Sunday" presents an array of perspectives on what it means to be alive in today's world. For more information, please visit www.oprah.com/supersoulsunday. To connect via social media, follow us on www.twitter.com/supersoulsunday and www.facebook.com/supersoulsunday

About O, The Oprah Magazine

O, The Oprah Magazine (oprah.com/omagazine) encourages confident, intelligent women to reach for their dreams, express their individual style and make wise choices, guided by the values of one of the most charismatic women in the world, O Editorial Director Oprah Winfrey. With an emphasis on personalgrowth, the magazine inspires, addressing every aspect of a woman's life - the material, the intellectual and the emotional - and deeply connects with more than 15 million readers every month (MRI, 2011 Doublebase). From the moment it launched, O, The Oprah Magazine carved out a unique position in the marketplace and created an entirely new category in women's magazines, delivering the Live Your Best Life message through thoughtful, ever-evolving content and the trusted advice provided by Suze Orman, Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz and other well-known experts. In May 2012, O, The Oprah Magazine won the publishing industry's highest honor, the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) award for General Excellence. O, The Oprah Magazine is available on Zinio, Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle and Flipboard, and its namesake iPad app is available on the App store at www.itunes.com/appstore. Follow O, The Oprah Magazine on Twitter @O_Magazine.

O, The Oprah Magazine, which also publishes a South African edition, is a co-venture between HarpoPrint, LLC and Hearst Magazines, a unit of The Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com), one of the nation's largest diversified media and information companies. With its acquisition of Lagard�re SCA's 100 titles in 14 countries outside of France, Hearst Magazines now publishes more than 300 editions around the world, including 20 U.S. titles. Hearst Magazines is a leading publisher of monthly magazines in the U.S. in terms of total circulation and reaches 87 million adults (Spring 2011 MRI).