Martha Stewart Publisher Steps Down
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Whoever follows Suzanne Sobel at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has got some serious selling to do. But it may not be such a bad job since her company’s namesake – likely to be released from prison Friday – is suddenly as hot as ever.
Ms. Sobel resigned as publisher and executive vice president of New York based MSO “to seek out new challenges,” it was announced yesterday.
Investors jeered at the news, sending shares of the company tumbling 4.67% or $1.65 to close at $33.70 in New York Stock Exchange trading. The shares have tripled since Ms. Stewart began her sentence five months ago.
MSO said it will begin searching for a replacement immediately and that the president of publishing, Lauren Stanich, will oversee advertising sales in the interim.
Ms. Sobel has had a tough sell for the last two-and-a-half years, ever since it was revealed in June 2002 that Ms. Stewart’s personal sale of ImClone stock was the subject of an investigation into possible insider trading. Ms. Stewart, 63, was subsequently convicted for lying about the stock sale, did five months in prison, and now will spend the next five months confined to her estate in Bedford, N.Y.
Since the stock scandal broke, the company’s flagship monthly magazine, Martha Stewart Living, has lost more than 1,200 ad pages, dropping to 657 in 2004 from 1,887 in 2002, according to print and broadcast trade publication MIN.
Also, Martha Stewart Living’s ad pages were down 18% to 139.5 during the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.
“Whoever was publisher would not have made a difference,” said MIN’s editor in chief, Steven Cohn. He added that whoever replaces Ms. Sobel will have a comparatively easy time of it. Ms. Stewart has burnished her image in prison and graces the cover of Newsweek this week with the headline “Martha’s Last Laugh.”
America appears ready to embrace Ms. Stewart as a brand again.
“I think her brand is going to get stronger,” said the vice president of national broadcast for ad-buying concern Carat USA, Andrew Donchin.
