After the success of “Entertaining,” Martha Stewart continued to churn out more books throughout the remainder of the 1980s, roughly one a year. Subjects ran the gamut, from pies and tarts to wedding planning to hors d’oeuvres. With all that publishing prosperity under her belt, in 1990, she entered the magazine arena with the launch of her own branded periodical, Martha Stewart Living.
“Our families and our homes are the centers of our lives,” Stewart wrote in the introductory issue, as recalled in a press release. “This magazine will always be filled with ways to make those homes more beautiful, more comfortable, and more full of life and light and joy for those we love.” The magazine was something of a trailblazer in the annals of celebrity branding, in that Stewart was not only its editor in chief, but was also prominently featured within each issue; a template that would be replicated in subsequent celeb-branded magazines featuring the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Rosie O’Donnell, Drew Barrymore, and others.
But Stewart actually didn’t own the magazine at first. In 1997, she used the money she had been raking in from Kmart to buy the shares of Martha Stewart Enterprises (which included the magazine) from Time Inc. and formed a new company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. In 2022, Stewart announced that Martha Stewart Living would cease physical publication. However, she promised to keep the party going online, directing readers to follow her to her website.
