Martha Stewart’s company appears to be finally rebounding from her legal problems, albeit tentatively, and with more losses forecast for the second half of the year.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. on Wednesday reported its first year-over-year gain in revenue since 2002 as advertisers returned to the flagship Martha Stewart Living magazine. And with circulation having grown in the April through June period, executives announced plans to raise the number guaranteed to advertisers by 100,000 copies, to 1.9 million, starting in January.

The new circulation guarantee represents a reversal of fortune from January 2004, when the guarantee was slashed from 2.3 million copies to the current 1.8 million.

“The list of returning advertisers grows with every week,” said chief executive Susan Lyne. She estimated the number of returnees to be about 60, and said it has been matched by new advertisers.

“There was no way to go but up; the numbers were so bad,” said Steven Cohn, editor in chief of Media Industry Newsletter, a Manhattan trade journal. “But it’s a whole new world out there, with a lot of competition from Real Simple and others,” he added, referring to newer homemaking periodicals.