• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, October 15, 2014

Wednesday brought one of the biggest shakeups in the magazine business so far this year: Women’s interest publisher Meredith Corp. has acquired the rights to handle all non-editorial responsibilities for Martha Stewart Living, the flagship of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, along with its sister publication Martha Stewart Weddings and their Web sites. 

The licensing deal takes effect November 1 of this year. Meredith will deliver its first editions of the magazines with the February 2015 issue of Martha Stewart Living, and the Winter 2014 special issue of Martha Stewart’s Real Weddings.

Under the terms of the 10-year licensing agreement, the domestic design maven and her staff will retain editorial control of the magazines, but Meredith will lead all sales and marketing, circulation and production responsibilities for the magazines and their related digital assets, including a large video library. Further, Meredith will market the magazines along with its own brands, including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Allrecipes and Traditional Home.

Martha Stewart, who serves as non-executive chairman of MSLO, stated: “We are very excited to partner with a great company like Meredith, which has an excellent track record in advertising sales, operations and production of a library of some of our country’s most popular magazines. Our editorial team can focus entirely on what we do best: the creation of inspirational, original, practical, useful, and trusted content for our superb publications and digital properties -- content that continually enhances and improves consumers’ lives.”

This is just the latest in a series of strategic magazine acquisitions and partnerships for Meredith.

Meredith acquired Every Day With Rachael Ray from Reader’s Digest Association in October 2011, followed by Allrecipes.com March 2012. Meredith then launched a print magazine under the Allrecipes brand in November 2013. In June of this year, Meredith Corp. revealed plans to launch Parents Latina, a new English-language magazine targeting U.S. Hispanic millennial mothers, in spring 2015. It hasn’t been all wins, however.

In April, Meredith announced that Ladies’ Home Journal would cease publishing as a monthly subscription title and would henceforth appear as a newsstand-only quarterly special publication.

The licensing deal appears to be the culmination of a major strategic reorganization at MSLO, following several years of declining revenues and cutbacks. In December 2012, MSLO shuttered Whole Living and Everyday Food, and in December 2013, it laid off 100 staffers. The company also faced a loss of merchandising revenues when its agreement with JCPenney ran into a legal challenge from Macy’s. MSLO has also cut back on its broadcast TV business.