Valleywag: Martha Stewart

Publishers try to pop ad-network bubble

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:00:00 PDT

Seven years ago there were less than 50 online ad networks. Today there are more than 300. But that number could shrink just as quickly, reports Lucia Moses in MediaWeek. At least, that's what her executive sources at publishers Rodale, Martha Stewart and Forbes hope. Rodale's MaryAnn Bekkedahl says that when her company experimented with an ad network, it served ads in the wrong language, broke exclusive arrangements with sponsors, and tried to put a fast-food ad in on a fitness site. Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller tells Moses Forbes has the solution: It offers advertising clients its own third-party sites handpicked by the company for editorial compatibility. Martha Stewart Livig Omnimedia does the same thing with its Martha’s Circle, co-CEO Wenda Harris Millard says, because “magazines are wonderful brands and the networks are not going to protect [them]." But we know what's really going on here.

Publishers are bad-mouthing ad networks, only to offer the smaller publishers who really need them their own networks instead. That's not cutting out the middleman to protect brands — that's steering away interlopers from outside the media business, while jealously guarding their relationships with Madison Avenue. Either way, smaller publishers which can't afford their own salespeople will get taken to the cleaners. It's just a question of who drives.

Martha Stewart boss on online advertising: "Machines don't create art"

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:00:00 PDT

Is Martha Stewart co-CEO Wenda Harris Millard, a former Yahoo executive, a bit ungrateful? In this excerpt from an interview with BoomTown's Kara Swisher, Millard explains what's wrong with what Google's made everyone believe about online advertising. The story, as it's conventionally told here: Silicon Valley owes its rebirth to Google. Google's distributed ad network, AdSense, allowed startups to fund themselves before venture capitalists recovered enough from the bust at the turn of the century to take notice of them. Google's auction-sold search ads have earned the company so much cash, it can spend it almost willy-nilly. The problem: Google's impact on online advertising has been otherwise disastrous.

Google will put AdSense against almost any content. Watching Google make its billions, rival ad networks decided they should too, flooding the market with inventory sold at ever-dropping rates. The problem with Google search, in which ads only show up when customers literally ask to see them, is that now all ad-supported Web companies and ad networks think they can create technology that will target advertising equally as well — even though Google search-ad targeting is just a crude keyword match, constantly improved by click-through data.

Susan Lyne steps down as Martha Stewart CEO

Jackson West — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:40:00 PDT

WASPy, blonde Martha Stewart doppelganger Susan Lyne has stepped down as chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and will be replaced by new co-CEOs Robin Marino and Wenda Harris Millard, the popular former Yahoo sales chief. As Gawker pointed out, the stock price is tanking, but Lyne did bring the company's books back to black after Stewart's obstruction-of-justice conviction. (Photo by AP/Mary Altaffer)

Big advertisers to buy ads by the quarter, not the year

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:20:00 PDT

Bad news for TV, print and radio: heavy-spending packaged goods advertisers, such as $300 million-a-month Procter & Gamble, don't want to make annual ad-planning commitments anymore. Due to rising fuel, food, and commodity costs, these advertisers only want to commit to spending quarter by quarter. "The planning cycle has changed," Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia president Wenda Harris Millard told Silicon Alley insider. "This is wreaking havoc on media company forecasting." What Millard meant, of course, is old-media forecasting. Other than maybe Yahoo, AOL and MSN, Web companies aren't used to the luxury of sending customer invoices a year ahead of time.

Facebook board member lunches with Mrs. Rupert Murdoch

Owen Thomas — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:00:00 PDT

CARLSBAD, CA — Who are those cool cats in sunglasses at D6? Why, it's Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, a board member at Facebook, lunching with Wendi Murdoch, wife of the News Corp. CEO and chairwoman of MySpace China. Also at the table: Martha Stewart, seen here to the left; Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures; and Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe.

Charles Simonyi policing Hudson river, close enough for girlfriend Martha Stewart to wave a handkerchief

Jackson West — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:20:00 PDT

The 233-foot yacht owned by Charles Simonyi, the Microsoft billionaire and Martha Stewart love-muffin, has been spotted in the Hudson River. For a sense of scale, the helicopter, painted to match, can be clearly seen perched on the helipad. (True story: the only time I've flown in a helicopter, Simonyi was the pilot). I'm sure that with Stewart's help, the whole thing is quite tastefully decorated — if only to remove the stank of the Danish girlfriend whose pet name for Simonyi was "skat." That's also the name of the yacht, according to Wikipedia. (Photo by Eric Etheridge)

Martha Stewart eyeing Etsy for acquisition?

Nicholas Carlson — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:29:44 PDT

Besides hosting Etsy cofounder Rob Kalin on her TV show, we hear Martha Stewart has been "cozying up" to Kalin off camera to talk about a partnership and — a source connected to Etsy employees tells us — a possible acquisition. On Etsy, members buy and sell only handmade goods, an idea almost as suited to Martha Stewart's audience as Kalin himself. Check out the above video taken just after Kalin finished a recent segment on Stewart's show and try tell us the her demographic won't ache for more of Kalin's handcraft. It's too bad for them we doubt Etsy investors are ready to sell.

Etsy and Kalin just closed a $27 million funding round on January 31 and it's unlikely investors would be ready to flip so soon — especially considering that two Etsy investors, Flickr cofounder Caterina Fake and delicious founder Josh Schachter, were burned selling to Yahoo months too soon. "I don't think either would say "Oh, flipping to Yahoo when i did was awesome!," a source familiar with their thinking tells us.

Martha Stewart kills Blueprint, blames the blogs

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:00:49 PST

"The world has changed," Martha Stewart reports. Younger people, she explains, access information via blogs and the Internet. And also "even through their cell phones." What's it mean for America's homemaker? The end of her latest tree-killer product, Blueprint magazine.

And Madison Avenue created woman

Mary Jane Irwin — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:32:17 PST

There are women on the Internet. Did you know? Madison Avenue is just figuring this out, desperately looking for websites to stuff with female-targeted ad dollars. Lifetime, the cable network, just launched its own social network, mylifetime.com, with a lot of help from Glam Media's stable of female-centric blogs. Similarly, Warner Bros. announced entertainment and advice destination Mom Logic. Martha Stewart has launched Martha's Circle, an online ad network which represents other websites, and NBC Universal's iVIllage has struck a similar deal with Sugar Publishing. "It's kind of boring to say, but we really think content's king in this category," said Starcom's Jeff Marshall to AdAge. Boring, and false. The rule these days is sell the ads first, and find a place to put them later.

Wenda Harris Millard, the abruptly ousted ...

Owen Thomas — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:27:59 PDT

Wenda Harris Millard, the abruptly ousted Yahoo ad-sales executive who left the Internet company for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, reveals that her new employer made a big mistake by designing its website for beauty, not utility. A pretty, video-filled front page made it too hard for users to find recipes and tips. [Reuters]

Martha Stewart's geek-genius boyfriend has another good thing

Owen Thomas — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:56:01 PDT

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Here's what you need to know about Charles Simonyi: He made billions by inventing what later became Microsoft Word and Excel, he paid $25 million for a flight into space, and he's dating Martha Stewart. Oh, about that last bit? We wonder if Stewart knows about Simonyi's dinner plans. He's in Cambridge for Technology Review's EmTech conference, where, we hear, he's meeting with Victoria Gray. Gray is an event organizer and rumored to be an old flame of Simonyi's. Of course, perhaps the dinner conversation will be all business: Simonyi is reportedly an investor in a venture run by Gray. After the jump, a paparazzi snap of Gray by Valleywag intern Jordan Golson.

(Photo of Simonyi and Stewart by Dan Farber; photo of Gray by Jordan Golson)

Get ready for Marthapedia

Owen Thomas — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:25:40 PDT

Apparently Martha Stewart thinks wikis are a good thing. Which strikes me as odd, since the no-longer-jailed domestic doyenne built her multimedia empire pretty much by sitting you down and telling you how things are done, her way or the highway. She's a tastemaker, not some kind of San Francisco-Web-startup "community manager." Asking for readers to email in scrapbooking tips is one thing. But user-generated recipes? Communally edited herb-planting instructions? Heresy. The plans for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to embrace wikis and other community features on a new website, announced by company president Susan Lyne, suggest to me more an attempt to embrace the bubbly valuations assigned to Web properties like MySpace and YouTube, rather than the egalitarian ideals of Web 2.0 proponents.

"Here's Your Chance to Poke Martha Stewart." ...

Tim Faulkner — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:48:31 PDT

"Here's Your Chance to Poke Martha Stewart." Expanding beyond her MySpace presence with a new Facebook profile, the home-style guru puts the "omni" in omnimedia — even if she is a little slow to join the bandwagon. [AdAge]

It's a good thing

Megan McCarthy — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:12:53 PDT

As new husband Sergey Brin stands watch, 23andMe's Anne Wojcicki, recently married to the Google cofounder, shows photos from her recent wedding to home-style guru Martha Stewart, at this weekend's Science Foo Camp nerdfest. No wedding bells, at the moment, for Stewart, who's merely going steady with early Microsoft employee Charles Simonyi.

(Photo by Esther Dyson)

Geek out: Al Gore lunges and Martha befriends a topless boy at D Conference

Nick Douglas — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 19:59:01 PDT

Wrap up the Powerbook cord and follow Esther Dyson to the next con — the D Conference winds down today. For actual news from people who are there, check out the Wall Street Journal's blog. (Favorite post: Turning the schmaltz up to 11.) For trumped-up news filtered through the snark machine, look no further. Photos by ZDNet reporter Dan Farber.

It's every boy's wet dream: get topless with Martha Stewart. At any rate, that guy in the shades looks jealous.

Al Gore, confused by the scenery, spent the whole time asking when the shuttle would blast off.

"I never attend a conference without my Wubby."

J. Peterman: "Elaine, you may call it Myanmar, but it will always be Burma to me."

"Ahahahaha, ahaha, aha...yes, yes, I am the love child of Steve Rubel and Tucker Carlson."

After host Kara Swisher was pried out from under the statesman's body, Mossberg wrote, "Lesson Learned: Don't offer Al Gore cake."

My god, Blodgett, you don't have to say yes to every conference invite.

Sandwiched between Al Gore and a big techie journalisty guy, Esther Dyson can't help but make an "I am cute and tiny!" face.

A moment of silence for the Guy Who Forgot to Bring Collared Shirts. (Don't be that guy.)

"No," says blog publisher Arianna Huffington, "I don't have any spare change. Now move away, you're standing in front of my Prius."

Walt Mossberg: "Whatever you do, let's please not make Marissa Mayer giggle."

Photos: D Conference [Dan Farber on Flickr]

Geek out: Martha Stewart and John Cusak hit the D Conference

Nick Douglas — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:31:58 PDT

Journos Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher had a grand time hosting the Wall Street Journal's D Conference, or at least they've learned to fake it. Reporter Dan Farber has a write-up at ZDNet, and he kindly lent his event photos. Here they are, misinterpreted.

"Looks great, doesn't he?" says Melinda Gates. "I left him alone at Bath and Body Works, and he picked himself a moisturizer."

Damn it, if Walt Mossberg hears one more story about that stinking John Markoff, he's switching to hard liquor.

Jean Louis Gassee: "I worked at Apple for nine years, and honestly, Steve's feet are this huge."

Martha's only smiling because she thinks that's Daler Mehndi.

After the jump, Mr. High Fidelity looks for a cooler conversationalist.

ZDNet king Eric Hippeau to serial entrepreneur Josh Felser: "Oh, my unbuttoned shirt is no accident, Josh. Let's dump this dump and go...share some war stories."

Lotus founder Mitch Kapor tells Answers.com founder Bob Rosenschein: "There's the 98-pound Dictionary.com guy. Let's go throw wine in his face."

Martha Stewart and her boyfriend, the man who built Word and Excel, Charles Simonyi. (They really are dating.)

The crowd was delighted as Walt and Kara performed a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire. "Listen, baby, when we first met - you and me - you thought I was common. Well, how right you was. I was common as dirt."

"Walt. WALT. Put down the Jack Daniel's and let's stop the 'I'll kill that ass Markoff' talk."

AOL exec Jason Calacanis pulls the Kawaii Anime Girl sign we all know and love. Meanwhile, the extinguished body of VC Yossi Vardi slumps in its chair.

"And we'll have a farm...with ethanol-fueled vehicles...and I can pet the rabbits! Tell me about the rabbits, Vinod!"

Dan's schwag. That damn Long Tail gets EVERYWHERE.

John Cusak pulls the over-the-shoulder glance, made easier because Kara Swisher is half his height.

Photos: D Conference [Dan Farber on Flickr]