Martha Stewart

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Martha Stewart (born August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, entrepreneur, homemaking advocate, and convicted felon. Stewart currently hosts Martha, and recently starred in . Most of her professional attention, since her release from prison in March 2005, has been focused on reviving the fortunes of her business, which had suffered due to her litigation.

Biography

Born Martha Helen Kostyra in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, she is the first daughter of Eddie and Martha Kostyra. She was born to a large middle-class family of Polish heritage, with five other siblings. She was raised in Nutley, New Jersey.

Instilled with a strong work ethic promoted by her parents, Stewart mastered traits that many would consider common household chores. These traits however proved to be the keystone of her success later in life. Stewart's mother taught her how to cook and sew. Later, she learned the processes of canning and preserving when she visited her grandparents' home in Buffalo, New York. Her father Eddie had a passion for gardening and passed on much of his knowledge and expertise to his daughter.

Stewart also excelled in school, and was active in many extracurricular activities, such as the school newspaper and the Art Club. During this time, Stewart began a modelling career. She was hired and appeared in several TV commercials and magazines. Finishing with straight A’s, she was awarded a partial scholarship to Barnard College in New York City. She initially intended to major in Chemistry but switched to Art and European History, and later Architectural History. It was around this time that she meet and later married her husband, Andy Stewart. After marrying him, Stewart temporarily left Barnard for 1 year, and continued her moderately successful modeling career, while her husband finished his law degree at Yale Law School. She would later return to Barnard a year later to graduate with a major in History and Architectural History. In 1965 her daughter, Alexis Stewart was born.

At this time, Stewart began to hone and develop her business skills. In 1967, she became a stockbroker. She was very successful until she left the profession in 1973, in order to focus more time on her daughter and restoring her new home in Connecticut. It has been suggested that a scandal involving the furniture company Levitz may have contributed to her decision to leave the firm of Monness, Horstman, Williams & Sidel. Several principals at the firm allegedly received kickbacks from Levitz for selling stock in the financially troubled company.

Stewart and her husband decided move to Westport, Connecticut. They purchased and undertook a massive restoration of the 1805 farmhouse, Turkey Hill, that would later become the model for the set of the Martha Stewart Living television program. Stewart and her husband undertook the entire venture by themselves. During the project, Stewart’s panache for restoring and decorating became apparent. Stewart's mother now occupies Turkey Hill, while Stewart currently lives at her new home in Bedford, New York.

Cover of 1992 reissue of Entertaining

In 1976 Stewart started a catering business in her basement with a friend, and later business partner, from college. The venture quickly became very successful, and when her partner soured on working with Stewart, who was becoming increasingly perfectionist, Stewart bought her portion of the business. Stewart opened also a retail store, The Market Basket at the Common Market shopping center where she sold her home entertainment kits.

Meanwhile, Stewart's husband Andy had become the president of prominent New York publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. In 1977, Andy Stewart was responsible for releasing the English-language edition of the Gnomes book series, by Dutch authors Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet which quickly became a blockbuster success and New York Times Best Seller. Andy Stewart contracted Stewart's company to cater the book release party, where she was introduced to Alan Mirken, the head of Crown Publishing Group. Mirken was impressed by Stewart's talent and later contacted her to develop a cookbook feauturing recipes and photos from the parties that Stewart hosted. The result was Entertaining, co-authored by Stewart with long-time fashion maven Elizabeth Hawes. From there, word of her skills and business grew rapidly. Entertaining became a New York Times Best Seller, and the best selling cookbook since Julia Child and Simone Beck's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, released two decades earlier.

Rise to fame and career

Martha Stewart with mother Martha Kostyra and niece Sophie Herbert on the set of Martha Stewart Living

Following Entertaining's success Stewart would release several more books under the Clarkson Potter publishing imprint, beginning with a book on hors d'oeuvres in 1984. During this time she authored dozens of newspaper columns, magazine articles and other pieces on homemaking, and made several television appearances on programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 1987 Stewart gained national prominence as spokesperson for the housewares department at K-Mart, leading to the launch of her own line, Martha Stewart Everyday, later that year. By this time Stewart's professional success had began to take a toll on her relationship with her husband. In 1990 Andy Stewart filed for divorce from Stewart, on the same day that Stewart's successful book, Weddings, was released.

In 1990 she also signed with Time Publishing Ventures to develop a new magazine, Martha Stewart Living, which Stewart for served as editor in chief. The first issue was released in late 1990 with an initial rate base of 250,000. Circulaton would peak in 2002 at more than 2 million copies per issue. In 1993, she began a weekly half-hour service program based on her magazine, which was quickly expanded to a full hour, and later to a daily format, with half-hour episodes on weekends. Stewart also became a frequent contributor to CBS's The Early Show, and stared in several prime time holiday specials on the CBS network.

On the cover of their May 1995 issue, New York Magazine declared her as "the definitive American woman of our time."

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Stewart at the New York Stock Exchange handing out orange juice and brioche to traders on the day of her company's initial public offering.

In September 1997, Stewart, with the assistance of business partner Sharon Patrick, was able to secure funding to purchase the various television, print, and merchandising ventures related to the Martha Stewart brand, and consolidate them into a new company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Stewart seved as chairwoman, president, and CEO of the new company and Patrick became Chief Operations Officer. By organizing all of the brand's assets under one roof, Stewart claimed that it would promote synergy and greater control of the brand's direction throught the business' activities. That same month Stewart announced in her magazine the launch of her website, [marthastewart.com] and a catalogue business, Martha by Mail.

On Oct 19, 1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MSO. The intial public offering was set at $18 per share, and rallied to $38 by the end of trading, making Stewart a billionaire on paper. Stewart was then and continues to be the majority shareholder, with a comanding 96% control of voting power in the company.

Insider Trading Charges

Beginning in 2002, Stewart's career was shaken by a charges brought against her regarding the sale of her shares in pharmaceutical company ImClone, days before its application for a new drug was denied. Stewart's reputation suffered heavily during the course of events that occurred over the next 3 years, which included a heavy drop in advertising in Living and to a lesser extent Weddings and Kids. Also, shortly after her conviction on four counts of lying to investigators and obstruction of Justice, her syndicated television show was cancelled and she was forced to step down from her role as CEO and chairwoman for a non-executive role. Stewart surprised many when she pleaded guilty, accepting a 5-month prison sentence in 2004 which she served at Alderson Federal Prison Camp. She was released on March 4, 2005, after which she was placed under supervised release and required to wear an ankle bracelet for an additional 5 months.

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all 3,928 shares of her ImClone stock. The day following her sale, the stock value fell 16%.

Comeback

Publicity Shot for Martha

As of 2006, Stewart is once again involved in her Martha Stewart Living family of magazines. Offerings of her company's Martha Stewart Everyday line at Kmart have been expanded to include a new line of ready-made home furnishings, its mass market interior paint line now sold at larger Sears stores. However, the most heavily promoted aspect of her attempted comeback is television. She is again the host of a daytime show, Martha and appeared in an adapted version of The Apprentice (called ). Both shows premiered in September 2005, and both were produced by Mark Burnett. Her prime time Apprentice spin-off received poor ratings, which some attribute to popular dislike for the opportunistic tone of the network's massive promotional campaign and to NBC's slotting the show up against the hit drama Lost. The Apprentice: Martha Stewart was not renewed for a second season.

In October 2005, Stewart also released a new book called The Martha Rules on starting and managing a new business, and a month later she released Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. She also is a regular contributor of cooking, gardening, and crafts segments on NBC's The Today Show. Stewart's daily talk show was nominated in 6 categories for the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 2006, including Best Host and Best Show.

In October 2005, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched a line of houses that carry her name to be built by KB Homes initially in Cary, North Carolina and various other locations nationwide. The first homes, which were inspired by Stewart's homes in New York and Maine, were completed in early 2006. Ultimately 650 homes are planned with prices from low $200,000 to mid-$400,000s. Stewart's company is currently developing an upscale line of homewares for Federated Department Stores, owner of Macy's. A line of paper-based crafts for EK Success is also in development.

In addition to television and merchandising, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched a 24-hour satellite radio network with Sirius in November 2005, on which Stewart currently hosts a weekly call-in show.

Notes

References

Interviews

• [Exclusive interview with online video from Achievement.org]

News stories

• BBC News Online - [Commentary of her jailing]
• BBC News Online - [Martha Stewart lambastes jail food]
• Sellers, Patricia (Nov. 14, 2005). "Remodeling Martha". Fortune, p. 49–62.

See also

• Martha
• Martha Stewart Living
• Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

External links

• [MarthaStewart.com]
• [Martha Stewart Timeline]
• [Stewart joins PETA's anti-fur campaign]
• [Martha Stewart's political donations]
• [Martha Stewart Comeback] A Stewart fan site
• [SaveMartha.com] — Fan site run by supporters of Martha Stewart

9 million USD (FY 2005) | Employees: 660 | Stock Symbol: NYSE: [MSO] | Website: [www.marthastewart.com]

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