• by John Gaffney , March 4, 2003

Focus On Your Salad: That’s what Martha Stewart told an interviewer on CBS months ago when asked about her insider stock trading allegations. Now today it’s more obvious than ever that Martha’s troubles are spreading through her media company, as it announced a $2 million quarterly loss. To me those troubles are deeper than even the numbers show. Print ads are tough, but the home improvement category is doing well. MS Living should be setting records for profits. Omnimedia broadcasting should be ready present a great upfront package and in fact, I’m sure it is. I’ve said before that Stewart’s situation is being unfairly dragged on. Never has a rompin’ stompin’ $250,000 meant so much to anybody in Washington D.C., unless they were on the receiving end themselves. Time for Omnimedia and Stewart to end this, and they all know it. They need to be more aggressive in ending it, and that ain’t exactly MBA stuff. "Until this situation is resolved, we will likely continue to face challenges throughout our businesses," President and Chief Operating Officer Sharon Patrick said Tuesday in a press release. Time for Sharon Patrick to focus on her salad before the rest of the media business eats her lunch.

Countdown To Upfront:If the ad business had its own cable channel we could devote all day to theory, speculation and prediction about the TV upfront. Could you imagine that? Lifestyle features on people like Mel Karmazin and even key buyers like Bill Konigsberg. Trash talk on the dietary supplements that made Donny Deutsch bigger and bolder. Tote boards on actual revenues per network. Kudlow and Cramer could run the whole show. There are a ton of good stories on and around the upfront this year. Money is number one. Programming is number two. And being creative with this wealth that TV seems to be assured for the coming year is number three. In fact, I like number three a lot.

Parting Shot: I’m rooting bigtime for Good Music magazine, which is taking on the daunting and noble task of presenting culture to the 30-plus generation. I have personal cultural reasons for this, but I also think this pub has a chance to prove that the 30-plus generation is not a neatly defined demo. It’s a collection of tribes, interest groups and passions that resists traditional methods of measurements.