NEW YORK – Martha Stewart wants to be everybody’s best friend, but it’s a tough popularity contest.
New projects reflect a new touchy-feely business approach and friendlier persona for the diva of homemaking. She rapped with Sean “Diddy” Combs and made dough figures with Conan O’Brien on her new daytime talk show “Martha.” And on her reality show “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart,” she writes lovely rejection notes to canned candidates. She has even quickly incorporated her five-month prison experience into her brand, selling 13,000 copies of the famous poncho she wore when she was released in March as a benefit for women’s charities.
Stewart is also reaching out to new viewers, with plans to develop a new home-improvement reality TV show in 2006, as well as new books, DVD’s and a radio show in coming months.
Whether this new approach can to turn around Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. remains to be seen. Advertisers fled and her stock plummeted as much as 50 percent while Stewart fought charges of lying to investigators about a stock sale, then shares and business rebounded while she served time in Alderson, W.Va.
But since Stewart’s two TV shows made their debut in September, the stock has fallen 26 percent to about $25 a share amid lukewarm ratings. And some fans are not quite sure what to make of the new, funnier and chattier Martha.
“I miss her old show. I walked away learning more. She was more studious,” said Jane Sanders. “Celebrities don’t do it for me,” said Sanders, 40, of New York City, who was part of the live studio audience for Stewart’s talk show featuring O’Brien last week.
But there are also positive signs. Susan Lyne, president and CEO of Stewart’s New York-based multimedia company, reported that sales of Martha Stewart Everyday merchandise, from pots to towels, at Kmart stores have enjoyed an uptick.
The company is also seeing interest from potential new suppliers and retailers about new products, and continues to talk to Sears Holding Corp. about expanding Stewart’s Kmart products into Sears stores, Lyne said.
Advertising revenue is also getting a boost from the TV exposure, which Lyne said has created a “halo” over the brand. The number of ad pages for its flagship magazine Martha Stewart Living is expected to be up a better-than-expected 48 percent for the third quarter over a year ago, Lyne said.
“There are definitely more positive conversations happening – with more clients, “said Brenda White, director of print investment for Starcom USA, which buys advertising space for dozens of companies. “We know there is going to be a future for the company, which could have been a question before.”
In addition to the two TV shows, and the upcoming home-improvement show, set to air on cable channel Discovery Communications in 2006, Stewart will have a 24-hour channel with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. that will feature cooking, gardening and entertaining programming for women. It will debut later this month.
Associated Press
Sean “Diddy” Combs joins host Martha Stewart for her first lesson in “Rap 101” on the set of “Martha” in New York Sept. 15.
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