DIVA DUMP: How The Post broke the story yesterday on the ailing media empire. (
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Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia said Chief Executive Lisa Gersh is stepping down after just five months on the job as the domestic diva’s empire retrenches.
The company also said it had hired a headhunter to find a replacement for Gersh, who will leave after a transition period.
Her departure, which was first reported in The Post, sent the stock down as much as 5 percent before recovering. Shares closed up 7 cents, or 2.7 percent, at $2.65.
The move comes as the company pulls back from media to focus on selling branded merchandise, including a deal with JCPenney.
Gersh, a veteran TV executive and co-founder of Oxygen Media, was hired as president and COO in 2011, in part to help revive the company’s flagging media fortunes. She was elevated to CEO in July.
However, her hiring hasn’t done much to boost the TV or publishing properties. In January, the Hallmark Channel canceled Stewart’s daily talk show. Her only regular TV gig now is “Martha Stewart’s Cooking School” on PBS.
The magazine portfolio has also been battered by the print ad slump, with the company shutting down its Whole Living and Everyday Food titles, and firing about 70 people, in recent weeks.
The announcement came in a memo to staffers from Gersh and Stewart, who is the company’s majority owner, non-executive chairman and chief creative officer.
Surviving in the CEO spot has always been challenging, as Stewart has a reputation as a micro-manager who doesn’t want executives making key decisions.
“I call it the Murphy Brown syndrome,” said Michael Kupinski, a media analyst with Noble Financial Partners, referring to the TV hit that starred Candice Bergen as a sharp-tongued news anchor who churned through assistants.
While Stewart has not reclaimed the CEO title since she served a five-month prison sentence for lying to investigators probing her sale of ImClone stock, she remains the indomitable power.
She controls about 70 percent of the stock and receives $2 million in salary and bonus, plus another $2.1 million paid to her real-estate company for use of her homes and studios.