BREAKING. Oprah Winfrey to become CEO as well as chief creative officer at her Oprah Winfrey (OWN) network.

With the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show going out in South Africa on SABC3 tomorrow evening in primetime at 19:30, Oprah Winfrey is set to become the new chief executive officer (CEO) at her own TV channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), The Wall Street Journal reports.

Citing unnamed sources involved with the venure, the business newspaper says Oprah Winfrey will become the new CEO and also serve as the chief creative officer of the TV channel that's been facing an uphill battle for viewership in America. Until now Oprah Winfrey has functioned as the chairperson of OWN, but becoming CEO will mean that she'll be taking a more direct hands-on approach in the day to day running of the TV channel.

Besides management duties and responsibilities Oprah Winfrey is likely to start a new kind of talk show on OWN in 2012.

UPDATE Wednesday 13 July 16:55 - OWN just confirmed the news that Oprah Winfrey is becoming the new CEO and chief creative officer and that Sheri Selata and Erik Logan, currently presidents of Harpo Studios will now become presidents of OWN, effective immediately.

''All future television production at Harpo will be directed exclusively to OWN, strengthening the alignment and programming mission of both companies,'' says OWN in a just issued press release.

''I'm ready to dedicate my full creative energy and focus as the full time CEO of OWN,'' says Oprah Winfrey. ''By aligning the mission, talent and leadership of Erik, Sheri, the OWN team, the Harpo team, along with expertise of David Zaslav, Peter and all of Discovery behind us, we can unleash the full potential of the network.''