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 Oprah Winfrey's cable channel unveiled a management shake-up on Monday, eliminating 30 jobs, as it looks to cut costs and speed its path toward profitability. 
 
 While the channel has only been on the air since the start of 2011, it has had a tumultuous time with numerous management changes and weak ratings. Eight months ago, Ms. Winfrey took over as chief executive and chief creative officer of the channel. In January, she launched her own show, "Oprah's Next Chapter," and ratings have since climbed. 
 
 Known as OWN: Oprah Winfrey network, the ... ||||| Oprah Winfrey's struggling cable television network, OWN, said Monday it is laying off one-fifth of its workers and restructuring its operations in New York and Los Angeles. 
 
 FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2011 file image released by Harpo, Inc., Oprah Winfrey, right, is shown with host Rosie O'Donnell during the debut of "The Rosie Show," in Chicago. Oprah Winfrey's struggling network,... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this April 14, 2011 publicity image originally released by OWN, TV personality and media mogul Oprah Winfrey presents at the OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network portion of the Discovery Communications... (Associated Press) 
 
 The decision to let 30 employees go is a "tough" one, but the economics of a start-up cable network didn't fit with OWN's cost structure, Winfrey said in a statement. 
 
 "As CEO, I have a responsibility to chart the course for long-term success for the network. To wholly achieve that long-term success, this was a necessary next step," Winfrey said. 
 
 The responsibilities of the laid-off workers will be distributed among people with the network and its venture partners, Discovery Communications and Winfrey's Harpo Studios, according to OWN. 
 
 The cable channel, which launched Jan. 1, 2011, endured a freshman year of executive turnover and missteps that proved OWN lacked a solid foundation on which to build. This was despite a Discovery Communications investment of a reported $250 million and counting. 
 
 Discovery executives will take a more active role in the channel, according to the announcement. 
 
 Neal Kirsch, chief financial officer of Discovery's U.S. networks, will move to OWN as the chief financial officer and chief operating officer, reporting to OWN presidents Erik Logan and Sheri Salata. 
 
 Another Discovery executive, Lee Bartlett, will have joint oversight of business and legal affairs with an OWN vice president, Tina Perry. 
 
 OWN started as an ambitious new platform for Winfrey after she stepped away from her long-running, top-rated daytime talk show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show." But viewership for OWN shows has been largely unimpressive, with one example being a short-lived Rosie O'Donnell talk show that was cancelled last week. 
 
 OWN got a burst of viewer attention this month for Winfrey's exclusive interview with Whitney Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina, which drew 3.5 million viewers, the channel's biggest audience to date. 
 
 From the start, OWN failed to improve on, or in some instances even match, the modest ratings and small audience earned by the low-profile Discovery Health channel it replaced. 
 
 As the new channel struggled for footing, Winfrey stepped in behind the scenes and became CEO and chief creative officer of OWN, bringing in her Harpo leadership team of Logan and Salata as presidents. She also increased her on-camera profile with "Oprah's Next Chapter." 
 
 "I would absolutely say it is and was not where I want it to be for year one," Winfrey said in December. "My focus up until (last) May was doing what I do best, which is `The Oprah Winfrey Show,' and giving that my full attention" until its conclusion. 
 
 Since September, according to OWN, it's seen a double-digit increase in ratings and a network high cumulative of 40 million viewers per month. 
 
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 Online: 
 
 http://www.oprah.com/ow n
– This week on Oprah: dealing with unemployment. The Oprah Winfrey Network is laying off a fifth of its workers as part of a major restructuring at the cable network, which has struggled for ratings since its launch last year, AP reports. "It is difficult to make tough business decisions that affect people's lives, but the economics of a start-up cable network just don't work with the cost structure that was in place," Winfrey said in a statement. The move will cut the network's head count by some 30 people, saving it $20 million over the next two years, an insider tells the Wall Street Journal. That comes on top of savings of close to $25 million made by canceling Rosie O'Donnell's talk show a few days ago. Executives from Discovery Communications, which co-owns the channel with Winfrey, will be taking a more active role in the channel after the restructuring.