Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s home retail empire is in tatters as the company filed its quarterly earnings on Friday.
The domestic diva’s revenue fell 17 percent from last year’s mark as cash flow across publishing and broadcasting were lower, while merchandising was up a tick. Earlier in the week, while the offices were closed due to Hurricane Sandy, layoff letters went out to 60 to 70 employees, cutbacks expected to save the company about $35 million this upcoming year.
MSLO reported a net loss of $50.9 million, or five times the loss recorded last year.
The revenue implosion is somewhat self-inflicted by Stewart, thanks to MSLO’s cross dealing on 34th Street.
MSLO’s exclusive deal with Macy’s was upheld in a court injunction over the summer that forced rival JCPenney to scrap for the time being plans to carry much of the Martha Stewart line — until next spring, perhaps.
In the filing, the company cited design work done for Penney as a revenue driver.
In an Securities and Exchange Commission filing accompanying the earnings, Lisa Gersh, MSLO’s president and CEO, said, “Our performance in the quarter was in line with our expectations but not our ambitions for the company.
“Including the publishing segment actions [layoffs] announced yesterday, we have taken actions designed to significantly reduce the cost structure of our print and broadcasting operations this year, an important step toward positioning MSLO for profitable growth.”–Post staff
No schnapps
Bertelsmann boss Thomas Rabe, the guy who just secured a big merger between publishing giants Penguin and Random House, has given up drinking alcohol, according to the Financial Times.
Rabe is swapping out his drinking habits for ginger tea and the gym, according to a report.
The FT quotes a source as saying,“It’s a shame. He was great fun with a bottle of wine or two. But maybe he’s limbering up for something.”
Rabe is certainly flexing his financial muscle. He’s hoping to ramp up things on the music side via Bertelsmann-KKR-backed BMG Rights making a bid for EMI’s Parlophone soon. He’s also looking to buy a big academic publisher.
Rabe may want to keep a clear head. This former finance chief is talking a big game about Bertelsmann’s future, and he’s got to turn around the sleepy old media firm and spin it into the digital future. Not everyone is convinced that buying book-publishing companies is the way to go, and others question whether he’s got the money to play on the big stage.
Stand by for some big time partnership discussions — just not over a glass of Riesling.–Claire Atkinson
Fungi feast
Normally you would expect that much water to be good for fungi. Yet in a week filled with genuine suffering, perhaps we can spare a melancholy thought for this year’s Trufflepalooza: The annual event at Locanda Verde in celebration of the mushroom cousin that costs a king’s ransom had to be scrapped on Monday due to . . . well, you know.
According to Bloomberg News, Andrew Carmellini’s popular Italian spot in Tribeca didn’t suffer any storm destruction. But loss of power forced cancellation of the event.
White truffles purchased for the event are worth $15,000 to $16,000, Locanda Verde spokeswoman Jacque Burke told Bloomberg.
“We are sitting on some of the nicest white truffles around right now, and we are still trying to figure out what to do with them,” Burke said. “Unfortunately, there are way, way bigger tragedies.”–Post staff
Mag wheelin’
Publish or perish. All the celebrity glossies went to press by early last week, to hit newsstands by this weekend.
“We finished up last Friday, and when we started hearing that the subways were going to close Sunday night, we called everyone into the office that night,” said Larry Hackett, People’s managing editor.
American Media, which shares an address in downtown Manhattan at 4 New York Plaza with the Daily News, also called in staffers to finish up Star and the National Enquirer over the weekend, but flew 14 staffers from OK! down to its other office Boca Raton, Fla. Thirty-six other staffers are heading south today to put out AMI’s monthlies, Shape and Men’s Fitness.
American media CEO David Pecker said the New York office still had 3 feet of water in its lobby and thought it would be a while until staff could return.
Bauer Publications, which publishes In Touch and Life & Style out of Englewood Cliffs, NJ, was without phone service, and its distribution company was knocked out, but got the titles to newsstands.
Us Weekly, which is based in Midtown, also got out the door on time.–Keith J. Kelly