Martha Stewart Managing

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May 1, 2002 by Greg Lindsay

Byline: greg lindsay

Soccer moms and magazine execs alike revere homemaking doyenne Martha Stewart for her WASPy Zen approach to decorating, entertaining and blazing the celebrity editor trail. But the editor of Martha Stewart Living hasn't been so quick to divulge her media management secrets. So we've taken the liberty of distilling Martha Inc. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002), Christopher Byron's behind-the-scenes look at Stewart's business genius (and personal dysfunction), into an easily digestible list of tips for you to try at home, or in the Conde Nast cafeteria.

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always find opportunities to raise your brand's visibility. At a benefit for Princess Diana in 1995, a guest mistook Martha for a reporter. Martha snapped: "You know God-damn well who I am!" followed by, "Well, if you don't know who I am, then you don't deserve to be at this table! I'm Martha Stewart."

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don't "chick" off the franchise. Tired of constant condescension from Time Inc. execs (one of Martha's lieutenants termed the sexist treatment "chic-king"), Martha bought the magazine from the company in 1997 for just $2 million, laying the cornerstone for a media company worth billions. (Her former partners still can't stand her. "She was a terrible pain in the ass," says former Time Inc. exec Chris Meigher. "And a potential egomaniac.")

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if you want a perfect employee, get a dog. While walking one of her Chinese chow chows through the office one day, the dog suddenly squatted and relieved itself. Stewart turned to her assistant and quipped, "I just wish I could get my employees to do that when I say."

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never pass up a chance to kick tina brown when you're up and she's down. On the day of Martha Stewart Omnimedia's IPO in 1999, Stewart-suddenly worth $1.27 billion- attended a lunch in her honor given by Tina Brown. "How are you doing?" Brown greeted her guest. Breezing past her host, Stewart replied: "I'm rich."