Earnings at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia plunged 42% in the third-quarter, and the company warned investors Thursday that its fourth quarter numbers may fall short of what Wall Street is expecting.
At the same time, the company says it will launch a new mass appeal title in January. The company will launch a four-issue test of Everyday Food, which will be marketed on newsstands and in
supermarkets. If the test is successful, Everyday Food will begin publishing with a regular frequency of ten issues per year in September 2003. The portable, digest-sized publication will also be
promoted on other Stewart properties. It will be a segment within Stewart’s television show and will be included as a distinct feature within the marthastewart.com website. The company says Everyday
Food will have an initial distribution of 750,000 copies per issue including newsstand and controlled circulation. It will have a cover price of $2.95. Since Stewart became embroiled in an inside
stock scandal, the industry has watched to see if her multimedia empire would take a hit from advertisers. Ad pages for Martha Stewart Living’s November issue were up 2%, but that was down from a 6%
hike in ad pages in the October issue. The producers of her daily TV show say they have not seen any advertisers pull their spots over Stewart’s legal troubles.
