Bye Bye O

Oprah makes it official:

• Winfrey plans to tell viewers on Friday's show that she will retire the Chicago-based syndicated gabfest at the end of her current contract, which runs through the 2010-11 season, her 25th on national TV. It's going to be a long goodbye.
  
  Harpo Inc., Winfrey's company, on Thursday confirmed her move to end the program that spawned a multimedia empire, making her one of the country's wealthiest and most influential people and giving rise to several best-selling authors and other daytime talk shows.

While not as big an impact as some of the conventions at McCormick Place, Oprah is a tax generating entity. All those restaurants and coffee shops throughout the 012 District did largish business with all the suburban housewives coming in for a day on the town with Oprah.

Death by a thousand cuts is still dead. And that's Chicago's economy circling the drain.