Uh-oh. On Thursday Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced it was dramatically scaling back two of its four magazines and laying off 12 percent of its company, which is about 70 employees. Both Everyday Food and Whole Living will be see significant cuts and changes.
According to The New York Times, Martha's cooking digest Everyday Food will be cut from 10 issues a year to five, and will now be delivered as a supplement to subscribers of Martha Stewart Living rather than as a stand-alone publication. Executives are also discussing selling Whole Living, which has suffered a 24 percent decline in advertising pages in the last year, or at least fold its content into Martha Stewart Living if a sale agreement can't be reached.
All in all, it's bad news for Martha Stewart. The publishing arm of the company still provides 64 precent of the total revenue, according to recent public filings.
Read More: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to Lay Off Staff and Reduce Magazines at The New York Times
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Uh-oh. Everyday Food is a brilliant concept, and much needed. Love Sarah Carey and her cooking videos -- she's gotten me to make loads of new things.
Whole Living? Not so much...
Oh no! Whole Living is my favorite magazine...and I usually end up tearing out half the pages to keep.
Darn.
Noo! I only recently discovered Everyday Food. I love it. (I can live w/o Whole Living though. Sorry to those who like it.)
Man, I love Everyday Food. It has recipes that I can actually make and it's not pretentious. Bummer.
Love both of those magazines. Thats a real shame.
Rats. I subscribe to Whole Living and love it. When I'm done with the magazine, I leave it in my gym for others to read and apparently it's popular with others also because it tends to disappear.
I have been a subscriber to Every Day Food since it started. I still enjoy each edition! It's too bad they aren't willing to e publish--I'd switch my subscription to the iPad in a moment if it meant I could still get the good recipes.
NOOOOOOOOO! I love love love Everyday Food. Thank goodness I saved almost all of the issues.
Thanks doll,
The Glamorous Housewife
I'm totally with you! Everyday Food is my absolute favourite magazine - from the size (I can pop it in my purse and take it to work for meal planning over my lunchhour) to the ease of the recipes ... everything I've ever made from Everyday Food has turned out well! I've recommended it to so many people, and given gift subscriptions too! I have every issue (except for the very first one) since it started.
Was Whole Living the same magazine as Body and Soul? I was having trouble finding the latter but the former looked the same on the covers. Anyway, my favorite magazine used to be Organic Style. Body and Soul came close - WL had some serious greenwashing but overall Martha Stewart has some genuinely good eco friendly ideas, an advocate for wildlife and has some good tips to avoid declawing cats.
I loved Everyday Food and was a subscriber since the second issue. Then, for some reason, I was not getting the magazines. After missing three issues and not getting any resolution from MSLO, I reluctantly cancelled my subscription. I'm not surprised to hear they're in trouble.
Well dang, I just subscribed to Whole Living last week! A 2 year subscription at that! Luckily I snagged it on a discount, and if it goes under, I won't mind MS Living as a replacement. Still, sad news.
I subscribe to both, though I love Whole Living way more these days. Too much commercial crap has made it's way into Everyday Food. Very sorry to hear because Martha does everything best.
I LOVE Everyday Food and recently got some friends of mine to subscribe. It always has a variety of recipes that I feel comfortable trying - the cauliflower soup was spectacular! I peruse the magazine like most people peruse catalogs.
I enjoy Whole Living also, but EDF is by far my favorite. I'll keep my fingers crossed that EDF doesn't go the way of the dinosaur.
UH OH! I'm a subscriber to both of them, as well as MSL digitally through Zinio...I wonder what they will do for subscribers...
Boo - I just renewed Everyday Food for two years as well. And I get Whole Living. And Blueprint folded (though at one point you could order back issues). What's going on? And can I cancel my subscription if the default is MS Living, which I don't want? For me, Everyday Food went downhill once they got rid of the master grocery list that covered the entire issue.
I think it's reflective of following advertiser dollars. More advertisers are moving their budget to online advertising and product promotion and out of print media.
I don't live in the US, but my sister is a subscriber to Everyday Food and I really enjoy looking at the back issues when I visit. The recipes are simple and the photography is great!
They look like they're really trying to keep the staff if the advertising revenue suffered a 40% decline and they are only laying off 12% of the staff. Hopefully new projects are in the works!
Best of luck to Martha Stewart - I think all food bloggers will be watching to see how her Omnimedia plans to earn $$ online!
Ciao,
L
latech: EDF went to e-publishing with the Jan/Feb 2011 issue. Search for it in Newsstand on the iTunes Store and you get exact replicas of magazines, but with extra videos. Print subscribers get free access, but probably only from the point where you sign in.
latech: EDF went to e-publishing with the Jan/Feb 2011 issue. Search for it in Newsstand on the iTunes Store and you get exact replicas of magazines, but with extra videos. Print subscribers get free access, but probably only from the point where you sign in.
Not sad to see either of them go...EDF's recipes were too simple and lacking in flavor, IMO. I much prefer MSL's recipes. The rest of the content is a bit ridiculous, but the recipes are great.
Oh no! I love EDF. The recipes may not be as amazing or as impressive as MSL, but since I'm on a very tight budget (both financially and with time), I enjoy EDF much, much more. I always thought of MSL as aspirational or for people like my mom, who is retired and has the luxury of being able to hunt down (and buy) unusual ingredients and spend all day cooking. EDF is for people like me, a single mom who works fulltime and loves to eat good food, despite only having a $250 monthly food budget and 30min to cook each night. Although, my mom does tend to 'borrow' my EDF and I never see the issues again!
Aw, I'm sad to hear this! I'm a Whole Living subscriber and I really like getting the magazine each month.
I use more recipes from Everyday Food than any other magazine. I'd hate to see it go.
I'm pretty bummed about EDF "going under". I make a lot of recipes from that magazine. Iove being able to pop it in my purse and menu plan on my lunch hour. It's probably a pricey magazine to publish, print and design due to the smaller size. Not happy that another MSLO publication will fulfill the rest of my subscription as I don 't like any of her othet publications. Am dramatically cutting back on my magazine subscriptions and this one of the few I would have kept. Sad.
I only got the first two issues of my Whole Living Magazine. I loved both of them . Great recipes, but if I had known it was associated with Martha Stewart, I would never have signed up for the subscription. Second experience with failure associated with her. I haven't bought magazine subscriptions for over 20 years.I did this one because my granddaughter wanted to win a contest in school. I'm a marshmallow when it comes to my grandkids. Martha, what on earth are you doing???