Martha Stewart was not allowed to enter Britain’s borders, where she was “planning to speak at the Royal Academy and to hold meetings with several figures in the fashion and leisure industry,” because of her criminal record. This is not entirely bad news. The stress this travel blockade brings her will cause her to grow older faster, which will better position her to launch her new magazine, M,, which is for old ladies.
Time Inc.’s Ann Moore and exiting Martha Stewart Living chief Susan Lyne are having lunch next week. It’s either to meet about Lyne taking over Moore’s job, or the most excellent prank on media’s chattering classes.
In an article about the departure of Martha Stewart Living CEO Susan Lyne, Slate sneaks in a dig at the competition: “[MSL] is a textbook intersection of two media business lessons that should have been learned in the ’90s. One is that just because a content company makes a splash online does not mean that it needs to go public. (Departed TheGlobe.com and limping Salon.com are two other examples of content companies that held IPOs.)”
Nevermind that Slate is owned by the publicly traded Washington Post Company, which is a pure content play propped up by the enormously profitable Kaplan education unit.
News breaks today that Martha Stewart Living chief Susan Lyne is stepping down from the company. Looking at the company’s share price during her tenure, which has dropped by more than half, one might assume that her departure isn’t a voluntary one. But quite possibly, it was, or at least an amicable decision. That’s because Lyne has been rumored to be a possible successor to Time Inc. chief Ann More, whose contract expires in 2010. (Lyne’s deal at MSL, where she earned $4.4m last year, expired on Dec. 31, but included a one-year auto-renewal clause if the company didn’t notify her that they didn’t want to re-up her.) Not only did Lyne keep Stewart’s company afloat when its namesake founder headed to prison, but her experience as president of ABC Entertainment, and editor the Village Voice and Premiere, are the type of cross-platform expertise Time Inc. so desperately needs.
The Daytime Emmys, which exists as a chance for Days of Our Lives to excuse its existence, is also not good enough for Martha Stewart. The domestic queen didn’t bother submitting her show for any awards this year because, as MSLO broadcasting chief Sheraton Kalouria puts it, “There was no current category that addresses the unique hybrid format of our series.” Somehow Rachael Ray figured it out, but alas, Stewart’s decision isn’t without precedent. Oprah stopped submitting her show for Daytime Emmys, because she always won. But even Stewart can’t carry that excuse; she hasn’t won since 2005. And that award was just a sympathy “welcome home from jail” trinket.
Blogging this week on MarthaStewart.com, Martha Stewart-dot-commiserate wrote about the passing of Kublai Khan Paw Paw Chow Chow Chow, her big brown fluffy dog, who died at the age of 13. Except if you’ve been paying attention, this isn’t the only sad dog story of late. Last fall, Ellen DeGeneres devoted an inordinate amount of time to Iggy, an adopted pooch she gave away only to see repossessed by the rescue agency. And then last month, Oprah announced the death her cocker spaniel, Sophie, also 13.
Does Martha’s sad dog tale complete the three’s-a-trend cycle, or does Ellen’s sob story not actually count, because her pup didn’t pass? And what does that mean for the animals of Dr. Phil and Tyra Banks?!?!
That’s the mixed message some subscribers to Martha Stewart’s flagship publication received last month. A letter from circulation director Rich Fontaine went out to readers bearing very sad, very inaccurate news: That Martha Stewart Living “has ceased publication” as of the September/October issue. But just their luck: Their remaining subscription issues would be replaced by … Martha Stewart Living!
In fact, Fontaine likely meant to tell subscribers that MSLO’s Blueprint was caving. (It closed not with its Sept./Oct. edition, but with its January/February issue.) But we’ll never know for sure; carrying its mixed messaged theme all the way through, a company spokesmen isn’t commenting on the confusion.
• Kirstie Alley is going to launch her own weight-loss brand. Insert joke about fat women here.
• The new Dancing With The Stars “stars” leave some wattage to be desired.
• The Baltimore Sun will launch a youth aimed tabloid. Because that’s just that city needs: More trash.
• “Who stuffs Armani better?,” a Queerty poll.
• The audacity of hope sneezes: Barack Obama has a cold.
• Martha Stewart takes over Emeril Lagasse. The people in PR will have to figure out how to incorporate “Bam!” with “a good thing” without getting vulgar.
WEAK STOMACH Martha Stewart hates reading about her staff shakeups in the trades, so much so that she’s supposedly going through phone records to find out who called Women’s Wear Daily. (Smart tipsters know to use their cell phones. And Gmail accounts.) [P6]
GRASS IS GREENER Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia chief Susan Lyne might be looking to move on, with her $4.4 million contract technically expiring yesterday; she stays on with its auto-renew clause. Under her tenure, MSLO shares have seen their $20 valuation halved. Now watch as she goes hunting for a higher-paying gig. [KK]
The world has changed. By blogging, they get information. By texting. By BlackBerrying. By surfing the Internet. Even using their cell phones to retrieve information on the go! So to keep in step with this very dynamic Blueprint audience, we’ve decided to change the Blueprint format from just the magazine, fusing it into a new group of ideas…These [print] issues just might become real collectors’ items!
–Martha Stewart, echoing CEO Susan Lyne’s words to explain Blueprint isn’t folding so much as it is transitioning to a new medium. [WWD]
Earlier: The Story Of Mighty Martha And The Little-Read Shelter Mag That Couldn’t
Just a few short hours ago, Martha Stewart unceremoniously pulled the plug on Blueprint. But the post-fold publicity spin frenzy has already begun!
“We plan to grow Blueprint digital content across our Web sites,” explains disingenuous CEO Susan Lyne.
See, they’re not folding the sad, unread shelter title because it failed! They’re just totes expanding it! By firing the full-time staffers, relegating it to a tiny, tear-out section in Martha Stewart Weddings and permitting it to exist (in perpetuity!) on the world wide web.
The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Blueprint nine that day;
The circ numbers were low, dwindling somewhere in the realm of 350K
And then when October’s ad sales came and went, and November’s did the same
An incensed publisher intervened, looking for someone to blame.
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, ‘If only Martha would wait ’till after the New Year
To deprive us of our health insurance, our dental and holiday cheer.’
Just Trimming The Fat Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia gave a half dozen employees their New Year’s resolution for 2008: find a new job. The company let go about six people on Friday, and more layoffs could come today. There’s talk of boycotting the holiday party in TriBeCa as a stand against seasonal decadence in the face of job cuts. Um, clearly now is not the time to say no to free drinks. [WWD]
Good news, Jewish moms! No, Jonathan still hasn’t gotten into medical school. Jewish Living is launching next week.
The bimonthly magazine is aimed at Jewish women aged 25-34 and already has a base rate of 100,000 from newsstands and subscriptions sold to Jewish associations.
Unlike Heeb, which is targeted to the self-hating under 30 set, and the Synagogue newsletter, which is best for laughing at the personal ads, Jewish Living wants to be a non-Waspy version of Martha Stewart Living. Think Passover recipes instead of Easter egg decorating tips. CONTINUED »
In things you don’t want to imagine news, Martha Stewart has a crush on recently divorced neurotic, Larry David. “I like Larry a lot,” Stewart told his Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Susie Essman on her show and then asked, “Does he like older women, or does he only go for young girls?”
Ugh, that would be the grossest Cialis commercial ever.
[Star]
Martha Stewart, the innovative force behind Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Living Magazine has decided to throw her domestic energies into launching a social networking site catering predominantly to your mom. (”My MySpace is very lively,” Ms. Stewart said. “Who would have guessed?”) Um, everyone. [AdAge]
First Blueprint went after the young lady crowd. Now MSLO is planning a title for the post-menopausal crowd. Or are we being too harsh-slash-ageist? Anyhow, the new pub might go after Town & Country or More. Or, just as likely, chip away at Martha Stewart Living. [WWD]
• Lindsay Lohan cancels her 21st birthday celebration; Dina Lohan responds by calling her daughter a “wet blanket.”
• Nicole Richie abstains from alcohol lest her tiny, possibly non-existent fetus be subjected to empty calories.
• Tom Cruise reaches the highest level of “clear” in Scientology, and can now focus his full energies on stealing some rich Australian guy’s life savings.
• Busta Rhymes celebrates his 35th birthday by “st[anding] in a corner alone with his bodyguard” and sullenly mouthing the words to his own songs.
• According to Bette Midler, Martha Stewart “can make a lamp out of a pine cone with one hand tied behind her back,” prompting an angry Macgyver to respond, “Game on.”
While browsing Mediabistro this morning, we saw what—at first glance—appeared to be your average, run-of-the-mill snoozefest about women’s magazines. The article, (entitled “Peaceful Coexistence: Glamour, MSL, and Cosmo Style”) is about Glamour EIC Cindi Leive occupying the very same room as Cosmo EIC Kate White.
Did it end in a fight to the death? No, it did not.
But it did yield the best Martha Stewart tidbit since last week’s “Don’t you do background checks on people? He was Egyptian!” incident.
Glamour’s 50th-anniversary-celebration of its “Top 10 College Women” brought editor-in-chief Cindi Leive together with Cosmo editor-in-chief Kate White, who is a “College Women” alumna. So, too, is Martha Stewart. In this circumstance, Stewart looks like the mediator in resembling ex-President Jimmy Carter in the middle of warring factions.
And there you have it. Martha Stewart is the next Jimmy Carter. Except, you know, instead of negotiating peace treaties between Egypt and Israel, Stewart is vying to have her Egyptian driver deported back to the Middle East.
Same difference.
Editorial Director
