• Ad Age, Monday, August 2, 2010 10:47 AM

Martha Stewart is hotter than ever, Jack Neff reports. Kmart is gone but she's on shelves in Macy's and The Home Depot; PetSmart and Michaels. And she's not just pushing housewares and garden goods anymore. Cosmetics may be next.

"We have unlimited openness to listen to new business opportunities, and Martha is absolutely one of the most beautiful people I've ever met or worked with," says Robin Marino, CEO of merchandising for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. "So skin care could be something we'd be interested in down the road for sure."

While Stewart's publishing ventures are more than three times bigger than merchandising enterprises, the latter is the more profitable and fastest-growing part of her empire, Neff writes. Robert Passikoff, founder and president of consulting firm Brand Keys, says the brand is increasingly growing beyond the bounds of Stewart the person, much the way that Newman's Own transcended Paul Newman.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »