• PaidContent.org, Thursday, June 12, 2008 11:15 AM

Following the surprising departure of CEO Susan Lyne, former Yahoo Wenda Harris Millard was promoted to co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. In an interview with PaidContent.org, Millard says she's ready for the challenge.

"(Co-CEO) Robin (Marino) and I have been working together for three years," Millard said. "When she joined the company, I was already on the board, then I joined (from Yahoo) to work here a year ago and our roles were distinct: me on media, she on merchandise. Our new positions...bring the merchandising and media segments closer together and even could allow each side to leverage the other even more than before."

With Lyne at the helm, MSLO's stock traded at $30 per share in 2005, dropping to around $8 per share today-although the company has recently returned to profitability. Back in December 2006, Lyne said she expected MSLO's online efforts to comprise one-third of Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA), with long-term margins of 40%. Millard deflected questions of whether those goals were on track, saying, "We're focusing very determinedly right now on the weddings arena and on the Living.com site, which we're launching. What I can say is that our digital business is really healthy and we're going to continue to grow it."

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