Martha Stewart

April 2008

As a child, Martha Stewart developed a passion for cooking, gardening and home-keeping. As an adult, she began a successful catering business, which led to her first book, Entertaining. She eventually founded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, a multimedia company that includes magazines, books, an online component, a host of products for the home and her daily TV show in the U.S., which is now being sold around the world.

WS: You have a very strong connection with your viewers and your readers. What do you want to offer them?

STEWART: What we try to do is teach people valuable information, valuable how-to, valuable recipes, and valuable, practical, stylish and beautiful projects. Pretty much all revolving around and in the home. And because our information has been very trustworthy—the recipes are all tested and they work, when people use them they know they’ll have a successful outcome—people continue to be our viewers, our readers, our customers.

WS: How has your website supported and enhanced your various businesses?

STEWART: It’s tremendous. We have marthastewart.com and we’re tweaking it daily. About two months ago we had the Martha logo and its pretty colors on the home page, and it said The Martha Stewart Show. But it didn’t have the heading “Television.” Everything is at a glance on the web. You have to be very obvious to get the traffic, to get the eyeballs. So I said, Change the header to say “Television.” Well, the next day we had a 57-percent increase in traffic just by changing “The Martha Stewart Show” to “Television! The Martha Stewart Show,” and it has continued to build and build and build. So you must experiment with the words you use on a website to attract the eyeballs, which are being drawn in a billion different [directions].

WS: How involved are you in the selection of topics for your show or for the features in your magazine?

STEWART: For the show, I’m very involved because I’m here three days a week. We have our production meetings, our preproduction meetings, our planning meetings, and today I brought in five new ideas for shows that will be done before we go on hiatus again in May. So, I bring in my ideas all the time, and I e-mail my editor of content for the show, and in our production meeting every morning we discuss what we can do with these ideas. So it’s an ongoing, very interactive planning process.

The magazine is another thing. We have a Martha Stewart Living department-head meeting every two weeks, where we discuss the current issue, future issues, and any other department-head challenges, problems or comments. That’s a very important meeting and we love that meeting!

WS: FremantleMedia Enterprises is selling your shows internationally.

STEWART: Yes, we are in about 56 countries now. We’re so excited.

WS: The show travels easily, I imagine, because cooking, crafts and home improvement are of universal appeal. Do you have the international audience in the back of your head when you’re planning your shows, or are you just thinking about doing the best show for the audience in the U.S.?

STEWART: We’re trying very hard to be evergreen. Information should be evergreen, that’s number one. The information should be pertinent to everyday living. It shouldn’t be skewed too up-market or down-market. It should be interesting to everybody. It’s got to be universal knowledge, and there’s always the element of beauty in the things that we do. You’re cleaning your cat’s teeth and ask, why? It’s for beauty and good health. If you’re making a craft, why? And it’s not a dinky craft. I’m not into making things just to throw them away. We try to show things that I think I’d like. When we’re developing a product for Macy’s, for example, I will ask my design team—say they’re designing dishes, and I don’t like the handle of a cup. I’ll say, “Well, look, you know, I can’t really hold this cup terribly well. Do you really like this cup and are you going to buy it?” And if nobody defends that cup, guess what? That cup doesn’t get made. It’s very important for everyone to think the same way about the things. I want them to want [the things we make]. If it is good enough for us, then it will be certainly good enough
for our audience. But if it is not good enough for us, or we don’t really want it, then why make it?

WS: That’s right. God is in the details, isn’t He?

STEWART: Oh, yes.

WS: What qualities do you look for in the managers or the people that work with you?

STEWART: Well, I want them to be as curious as I am, if not more curious. I want them to be really good researchers, so that the information we get is accurate and good. If you saw the preproduction scripts for the show you would know what I am talking about. Today we had two 16-year-olds making toffee who may turn this into a real business. I want to know what toffee is. What is the history of toffee? I also want to know about the background of the kids. All of that is done ahead of time. I read all the background before I get to the show, so that I’m pretty well versed.

WS: How do you motivate people to continue to come up with new and fresh ideas?

STEWART: I don’t have to. They work here because that’s what they do. These are real, home-keeping nerds, just like I am. We are nerds of the home! And the more interesting, the more esoteric, the more detailed, the more beautiful a project is, the more involved they are.

WS: What further growth do you see for your company?

STEWART: We have an expansive opportunity to grow, and we recently had our five-year planning meeting. Oh my God, we have so much to do! We recently bought Emeril [Lagasse’s assets, including television content, cookbooks and a website]. It’s our first big acquisition in terms of extending the Martha Stewart brand into other related brands, but noncompetitive brands. Emeril doesn’t compete with me in any way. He’s just so compatible. So, how do we build Emeril and double his business in the next two years, which I think we can do nicely? How do we take body+soul, our wonderful whole-living magazine, to the next level? How do we take Everyday Food magazine and make that as vibrant as it can possibly be, and as well-read as Martha Stewart Living? We have challenges, but we also have huge opportunities for growth in the future.

WS: At any point in your career, did you ever feel the presence of a glass ceiling or the fact that being a woman was keeping you from doing what you wanted to do?

STEWART: I didn’t even know what a glass ceiling was until just three years ago! Somebody mentioned a glass ceiling and I thought, What are you talking about? A glass ceiling? I really didn’t, because I don’t pay attention to barriers. That’s not part of my way of thinking. If I have a great idea and if I have the wherewithal to make an idea happen, I do it and I don’t look for problems. I don’t look for reasons that might stop me and I never have. I certainly agree with feminism, that you have to try really hard to be a strong woman in a sensibly managed world, but I’ve never been a feminist. I’m not one who complains about glass ceilings or barriers or limitations on the part of my partners. I don’t look for that. I just barge ahead.

WS: Is there anyone, in particular, whom you credit for your drive and determination? And did you ever have role models?

STEWART: Of course, I have so many role models, but I had a really good father and mother. My father would always say, “You know, Martha, if you want it, you can get it. If you try hard enough you will succeed. You can do anything.” That kind of real and good encouragement really helped me a lot because I [never thought] I couldn’t do it.