Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (MSLO) is a diversified media and merchandising company founded by

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pub ...

and owned by

Marquee Brands Marquee Brands is a holding company founded in 2014 that owns several brands in fashion and home cooking. Marquee Brands is sponsored by employee-owned investment management firm Neuberger Berman. Brands *Anti Social Social Club * BCBGMAXAZRIA *BC ...

LLC since April 2019. It is organized into four business segments: publishing, Internet, broadcasting media platforms, and merchandising product lines. MSLO's business holdings include a variety of print publications, television and radio programming, and

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

websites.

History

The company was founded in 1997 by Martha Stewart as an

umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally use ...

for the various media and merchandising ventures linked to the Martha Stewart brand. It went public on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

(NYSE) on October 19, 1999. The stock opened at US$18 a share, but shot up to $38 a share, making Stewart an instant

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

. On August 6, 2002, a class action was filed against Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. for misleading investors by issuing materially false and misleading statements, and its officers using insider information to avoid losses. A settlement of $30 million was approved in 2007. In 2004, the company previously recognized as expense its estimate of annual subscription-acquisition costs rateably throughout the year. After reviewing this matter with its independent certified public accounting firm and its audit committee, the company determined on October 26, 2004, to change the method of accounting for interim period expense recognition of its subscription acquisition costs. The company recognized subscription-acquisition costs in the period in which the acquisition efforts took place and restated the financial statements. Stewart served as president, chairwoman and CEO of the company until being forced to resign as a result of the ImClone insider trading case. As part of an agreement with the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, she was banned from serving in any role that would allow her to prepare, audit or disclose

financial result The financial result is the difference between earnings before interest and taxes and earnings before taxes. It is determined by the earning or the loss which results from financial affairs. Interpretation For most industrial companies the fin ...

s of a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

until August 2011. In effect, this banned her from serving as an officer of her own company. Stewart rejoined the board of directors of her namesake company in September 2011 and became its chairwoman once again in May 2012. Omnimedia media division stopped printing ''Everyday Food'' and ''Whole Living'' while Martha Stewart Living moved from monthly to 11 issues per year in 2013. In December 2013, Macy's sued Martha Stewart and J.C. Penney after the two companies decided, in 2011, to partner up and open up what would be called "Martha Stewart Home Shops". Macy's sued Martha Stewart for "breach of contract" and sued J.C. Penney for "interfering with its agreement with Martha Stewart". Both of these lawsuits were combined in December 2013. Macy's goal was to stop J.C. Penney from selling Martha Stewart merchandise that was supposed to be sold exclusively at Macy's. Macy's settled a portion of its lawsuit with Martha Stewart Omnimedia over a home products deal, however, Macy's continues to sue J.C. Penney. Stewart did not disclose the terms of the settlement. This lawsuit cost between "$7 million and $8 million in legal costs", according to CEO Dienst. On February 19, 2008, MSL Omnimedia announced that the company had reached an agreement with celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse to purchase certain business assets for $50 million: $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock. With the exclusion of Emeril Lagasse’s restaurant chain and his foundation, the deal consists of the rights to television programs such as

Essence of Emeril ''Essence of Emeril'' (1994–96, 2000–2007) is a Food Network show hosted by chef Emeril Lagasse. In each episode, Emeril shares with his viewers some of his 'kicked-up' recipes, similar to those on '' Emeril Live'', but with a far calmer ...

and

Emeril Live ''Emeril Live'' is a television program that aired on Food Network from October 6, 1997, to December 11, 2007, and then on Fine Living (now The Cooking Channel) from July 7, 2008, to December 14, 2010. Hosted by Emeril Lagasse, ''Emeril Live'' f ...

, Emeril Lagasse’s Cookbook library, the emerils.com website, and kitchen and food products. On December 4, 2015, it was announced that Sequential Brands Group acquired MSO. As a result of its acquisition, MSO requested that the NYSE suspend trading and de-list the company's

common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Com ...

. In March 2017, MSLO partnered with Marley Spoon Inc. to have Martha & Marley Spoon

meal kit A meal kit is a subscription service–foodservice business model where a company sends customers pre-portioned and sometimes partially-prepared food ingredients and recipes to prepare homecooked meals. Services that send pre-cooked meals ...

service delivered by Amazon Fresh to customers in Dallas, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington D.C. metro areas. Sequential Brands Group agreed in April 2019 to sell Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia including the Emeril brand to Marquee Brands for $175 million with bench marked additional payments. The lease on MSLO's headquarters in Starrett-Lehigh Building was not included in the deal, but Marquee could assume the lease. Marquee Brands owns the

BCBG Max Azria Max Azria (January 1, 1949 – May 6, 2019) was a Tunisian-Jewish-born American fashion designer who founded the contemporary women's clothing brand BCBG MAX AZRIA. Azria was also the designer, chairman and CEO of the BCBG Max Azria Group,Musta ...

brand and is a subsidiary of asset manager

Neuberger Berman Neuberger Berman Group LLC is a private, independent, employee-owned investment management firm. The firm manages equities, fixed income, private equity and hedge fund portfolios for global institutional investors, advisors and high-net-wort ...

Publishing

*''

Martha Stewart Living ''Martha Stewart Living'' is a magazine and former television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of ...

'' (11 issues per year) *'' Martha Stewart Weddings'' ** Special issues including the annual ''Holiday Cookies'' *'' Blueprint: Design Your Life'' (canceled) *'' Martha Stewart Kids'' (canceled) *''

Martha Stewart Baby ''Martha Stewart Baby'' was a childcare magazine published between 2000 and 2003. The magazine, of which first issue appeared in March 2000, specialized in projects and topics for parents related to the care of newborns to toddlers A toddler i ...

'' (canceled) *'' Everyday Food'' (canceled 2013) *''

Whole Living ''Whole Living'' was a health and lifestyle magazine geared towards "natural health, personal growth, and well-being," a concept the publishers refer to as "whole living." The magazine became a part of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in August 2 ...

'' (canceled 2013) Four newspaper columns — ''ask Martha'', ''Living'', ''Weddings'' and ''Everyday Food'' — are distributed to newspapers throughout the U.S. via the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Syndicate. Current books are published through

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

's Clarkson Potter division; earlier titles were offered through subsidiaries of Time Warner prior to Stewart's spin-off of her business ventures from its corporate umbrella. Publishing activities are a major source of income for the company, and accounted for roughly 60% of

total revenue Total revenue is the total receipts a seller can obtain from selling goods or services to buyers. It can be written as ''P × Q'', which is the price of the goods multiplied by the quantity of the sold goods. Perfect competitor A perfectly comp ...

in 2005.

Television and radio

Television

On 15 November 2005, Martha Stewart named

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's Sheraton Kalouria as President of Television for MSO, he was responsible for development and production of global programming for

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

as well as managing MSO's development in the area of

digital content Digital content is any content that exists in the form of digital data. Also known as digital media, digital content is stored on digital or analog storage in specific formats. Forms of digital content include information that is digitally broad ...

for

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

, web and

mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ( ...

platforms. *''

Martha Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא‎) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness to ...

'' ( syndicated, daily) *'' Everyday Food'' (

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, weekly) *''

'' *''From Martha's Kitchen'' Although MSO retained no technical ownership stake in

's program '' The Apprentice: Martha Stewart'', the company, its magazines, and various business ventures were prominently featured in each episode.

Mark Burnett Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a television producer who is the former Chairman of MGM Television, MGM Worldwide Television Group. He is best known for creating and producing the reality shows The Apprentice (American TV series), ''The Ap ...

, who produced the series, is also co-producer of the company's daily

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

, ''Martha''.

DVD

MSO began marketing instructional

s in late 2005 through a partnership with

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, with the first five offerings oriented toward cooking and holiday and special event planning.

Radio

MSO operates a satellite radio channel, Martha Stewart Living Radio, on Channel 110 of

SiriusXM Satellite Radio Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

. Among programs on the channel there was a weekday-evening talk show co-hosted by Martha Stewart's daughter

Alexis Stewart Alexis Gilbert Stewart (born September 27, 1965) is an American television host and radio personality. She is the only child of Martha Stewart and her ex-husband Andrew. She was the co-host of ''Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer'' on Sirius Satell ...

, ''

Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer ''Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer'' was a two-hour daily radio talk show that aired on SiriusXM's Martha Stewart Living Radio channel. The show's lifestyle talk format was marked by the different personalities of the two hosts, Alexis Stew ...

''. Alexis left the radio show in June 2011 leaving Jennifer Koppelman-Hutt as the sole host. The show was cancelled in December 2011 and Koppelman-Hutt was terminated.

Internet and direct commerce

The company's Internet and Direct Commerce segment currently includes its website marthastewart.com and a direct to consumer

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

business, marthastewartflowers.com. Through an agreement with Touchpoint, it designed a line of customizable

greeting cards A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays ...

under the Marthascards banner, which were sourced and fulfilled by Touchpoint. This agreement was replaced by a new program with Kodak EasyShare Gallery in 2006. In November 2006, MSLO announced their launch of Martha's Circle which is a lifestyle oriented blog ad-network whose charter members include Apartment Therapy, Smitten Kitchen, and Charles & Hudson. Historically, the company also produced a print and online catalog, Martha by Mail, which was launched in 1997 and later rebranded as Martha Stewart: The Catalog for Living. Following Stewart's public fallout and the dot-com bubble burst in 2002, the company decided to discontinue both the online and print editions in 2003. The final print catalog was mailed in January 2004, and the online store closed in June of that year.

Merchandising

MSLO additionally offers various home goods through its mass-market Martha Stewart Everyday brand in

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

stores throughout the United States, and at

Sears Canada Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sears ...

in Canada. Furniture and paint are part of the company's specialty-retail oriented Martha Stewart Signature brand through a partnership with Bernhardt Furniture Company and previously with

Sherwin-Williams Sherwin-Williams Company is an American Cleveland, Ohio–based company in the paint and coating manufacturing industry. The company primarily engages in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of paints, coatings, floorcoverings, and related p ...

. In October 2006, the company announced a new agreement with

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

to develop an exclusive interior paints line, which replaced its previous contract with Sherwin-Williams. The new line of paints, ''Martha Stewart Colors'', launched in April 2007. In April 2006, the company also announced its plans to develop a new, upmarket merchandise line with

Macy's, Inc. Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito' ...

(at the time named

Federated Department Stores Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito ...

) launched in

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

stores in 2007. The company has also announced its intention to design a new paper-based crafts product line, Martha Stewart Crafts, with EK Success, initially planned for release in time for the Holiday 2006 season, which later debuted in early 2007 at

Michael's Michaels Stores, Inc., more commonly known as Michaels, is a privately held chain of 1,252 American and Canadian arts and crafts stores, as of January 2021. It is one of North America's largest providers of arts, crafts, framing, floral and wall ...

stores. In Fall of 2009, Stewart announced the development of a line of outdoor furniture, indoor organization, kitchen cabinets, and decor products at

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the l ...

. On December 7, 2011,

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

announced the acquisition of 16.6 percent of the company's stock. JCPenney plans to put "mini-Martha Stewart shops" in many of its stores in 2013, as well as starting a web site together.

Wine

On September 14, 2007, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced that it had agreed to a

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...

with

E & J Gallo Winery E & J Gallo Winery is a winery and distributor headquartered in Modesto, California. It was founded in 1933 by Ernest Gallo and Julio Gallo, and is the largest exporter of California wines. E & J Gallo Winery is the largest family-owned wi ...

produce Produce is a generalized term for many farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables (grains, oats, etc. are also sometimes considered ''produce''). More specifically, the term ''produce'' often implies that the products are fresh and g ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

with the

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

"''Martha Stewart Vintage''" for sale in 6

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, January. The 15,000 cases to be sold include: 2006

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino ...

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

, 2005

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon' ...

and 2006

Merlot (for

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

;

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

;

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

, and

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

). Martha Stewart also signed a contract with

Costco Wholesale Corp. Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco ...

to offer a series of food products developed from MSLO’s library of recipes.

References

External links

*
Yahoo! company profile for Martha Stewart Living OmnimediaPhoto tour of the offices of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
{{Authority control Companies based in New York City Retail companies of the United States Mass media companies established in 1997 American companies established in 1997 1997 establishments in New York (state) 1999 initial public offerings 2015 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange