• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, October 29, 2014

Not long after announcing that it would hand over business operations at flagship publication Martha Stewart Living to women’s interest publisher Meredith Corp., Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia revealed that revenues fell again in the third quarter of the year, due mostly to declines in its publishing business.

MSLO’s total revenues slid 11.8% from $33.8 million in the third quarter of 2013 to $29.8 million in the third quarter of 2014. The company’s publishing division saw revenues tumble 17.5% from $19.4 million to $16 million over the same period, due to lower print advertising revenue, partially offset by growth in digital ads.

Its merchandising revenues slipped 3.5% from $14.2 million to $13.7 million, reflecting the phasing out of its merchandising deal with J.C. Penney, which ran afoul of its previous retail merchandising deal with Macy's. MSLO's broadcasting revenues are now negligible, following the decision to discontinue most of its TV business.

MSLO CEO Dan Dienst was quick to note that the company has embarked on a new strategy: “Results for the third quarter, which is seasonally our weakest quarter of the year, were in line with expectations but do not reflect the current transformation taking place at MSLO. The significant partnership we recently announced with Meredith Corporation allows us to leverage their scale and expertise to fully monetize our award-winning content.”

As noted, earlier this month Meredith Corp. acquired the rights to handle all non-editorial responsibilities for Martha Stewart Living along with its sister publication Martha Stewart Weddings and their Web sites.

The licensing deal takes effect November 1 of this year. Under the terms of the 10-year licensing agreement, Stewart 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.