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.'

CONTINUED »

We are so thrilled to hear Blueprint brought on an editor in chief. We sort of had a strange affection for this “how to be a young Martha Stewart on a budget” mag ever since they took the concept of Budget Living and made it viable.

So, naturally, when they pull former BL staffer Sarah Humphreys for the spot, we were even more ecstatic. After going from Real Simple to Budget and back again, she surely makes a prime pick for EIC. Oh, and MSLO seems to be happy about it, too.

"We are delighted to have Sarah on board as the Blueprint team develops this magazine for women who are designing their homes and their lives. She personifies the target demographic of the magazine and with her experience and leadership skills I feel she will be able to build and guide this newest MSLO property into a strong and vibrant brand."

The next issue of Blueprint will hit stands in late August 2006, followed by six more issues in 2007. And as thrilled as we are about all things Blueprint and Martha Stewart … and Sarah Humphreys … our greatest hope is that she'll be able to give a few displaced DIYers a new place to call home.

New Blueprint Editor: Real Simple's Susan Humphreys [Eat The Press]

Remember Budget Living? Though short-lived, the magazine had a die hard following as a tongue-in-cheek home decor on the cheap pub which offered tips on entertaining, shopping, decorating your home, and financial advice for just-starting-out thirty-somethings.

And then, in February, it closed, after many months of CEO Don Welsh keeping it up on the block.

Enter Blueprint, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's new "sassy" little mag, aimed at (you guessed it) just-starting-out thirty-somethings. With a higher demographic and a more sophisticated feel, Blueprint is sure to sell the ad pages Budget Living just couldn't cough up.

"We think this is where they're at a little more," she said. "We wanted it to be lively — a little sassy, a little cheeky."

In content, Blueprint is more similar to another recently shuttered title, Budget Living, covering areas including fashion, health, home decorating, cooking and entertaining.

Hmmm … you think Martha Stewart was one of the publishers Welsh tried to sell BL to?

Kind of Blue [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]
Blueprint Lands 48 Ads [Stephanie D. Smith, Ad Age]

• Guarenteed the "who wants to fight with Bill O’Reilly?" website gets so many hits, it goes down faster than a Dirty Colin. [NYDN]

• No, shit. It's really all those celebrity scandal covers that sell tabloids? [WWD]

• Somehow we missed this fab article in NewYork magazine yesterday. Maybe we’ve been trying to wipe Jon Friedman from our brains so hard, that poor Kurt Andersen went right out with him. [NYM]

• What does the president of Iran undersand that George Bush doesn't? Make friends with the media. They've got the power. [CNN]

• Business Week fake interviews an editor from Business Week about Martha Stewart’s new magazine. We don't get it either. [BW]