• by Frank Saxe , January 6, 2003

The first issue of Everyday Food includes recipes for pasta and cinnamon coffee cake, but the real dish is Martha Stewart, whose company is launching the title aimed at working women and the stay-at-home mom alike. Its debut issue is on the newsstand this week, and advertising appears healthy. It’s success is not assured, however, as ad buyers wait to see if consumers turn to Stewart for more simple recipes than are in her flagship Martha Stewart Living, and whether her personal legal situation impacts the launch.

The digest-sized title will be published four times through August in a test run, with 750,000 copies sold on newsstands for $2.95 and through controlled circulation to customers already in the massive database of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO). If the test is successful, Everyday Food will begin publishing with a frequency of ten issues per year beginning in September.

“It is significant that the magazine’s name doesn’t include her name in the title,” says consultant Chris Bonner. “This is an expression of confidence in the strength in the brand, and the mechanism that goes with it. If they thought the only way to sell magazines was to have her name as part of the title, it would be there. What they’re saying is they feel they’ve got a strong enough product to succeed without it.”

“I don’t look at it as a negative, given where things are at with other issues with her personal life. The magazine at the end of the day has to live on its own anyway,” says Deutsch chief media officer Peter Gardiner, who opted not to extend Revlon ads from the flagship title to the more food-intensive off shoot.

To help promote the magazine, Everyday Food will also be a segment on Stewart’s TV show and will be included as a distinct feature within the marthastewart.com website. That has allowed the company to cross-sell advertisers with a variety of multimedia platforms, as has been done with Martha Stewart Living.

Among the advertisers in the premiere issue are General Motors, Campbell’s Soup, Alcoa, and Kraft. “With the focus on simple and quick recipe ideas, we felt it is a good fit with our brands,” says Kraft spokeswoman Kathy Knuth. Ad pages were being sold for $16,000, considerably less than the $125,000 rate for Stewart’s flagship publication, and are closer to the rates charged by its digest-sized competitors at the checkout.

Fallon MN print buying director Carol Pais is surprised by the singular-focus of Stewart’s magazine, noting that other epicurean titles have a more broad approach. For instance, Bon Appetit has elements of home entertaining, while Gourmet adds travel. “I don’t think it will steal from the high-end epicurean books, because people go to those magazines for so much more than food,” says Pais.

“Everyday Food is a natural extension of Martha Stewart Living’s franchise in cooking and entertainment,” explains Stewart, noting that reader surveys have found that its food content is among Living’s most popular.

But as far as brand extensions go, it is rather atypical says Bonner. “Normally, if you’re trying to go into a different space, you typically would get some life from the established brand. But part of the appeal of Martha Stewart is that she has engaged no so much customers, but members of her community, and the word will get around that there’s a new kid on the block – and that’s Everyday Food.”

While the digest-size could be seen as a turn-off to some advertisers, particularly food marketers who look for large photos to create an impact, it’s not the page size that Pais questions. Instead, it is whether a magazine similar to the specialty publications that already litter the checkout aisle necessitates ten issues a year. “With such a singular focus, I don’t know if there is a enough to warrant that kind of frequency, particularly since people are getting that information from so many different places.” Pais predicts a quarterly title, featuring season recipes, may have a better shot at success.

Another element to watch will be Stewart’s legal affairs, yet the success of Everyday Food may ultimately rest not on Stewart’s life outside the magazine, but on the marketplace. “The economy is in doubt, unemployment is creeping up, and people are thinking less about going out to dinner. Cooking at home might be the quick simple remedy,” says Bonner. “It’s an inspired title with great timing, and I don’t know if this title would work if it was brought out by Conde Nast or any other publisher, but it just might take the halo of Martha Stewart.”