Can Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia thrive if Martha Stewart is behind bars?
After all, being in jail does present some practical problems – it is hard to present a television programme about etiquette or style in the garden when you are banged up in prison. This is not the place to make jokes about what colour is currently fashionable for cell walls – for those and other varieties of schadenfreude (or just plain gloating), turn to virtually every other publication available in the United States. But beyond the unavailability of the anchor to present the programme, there are other difficulties ahead. Distancing Publishing is the company’s biggest source of revenue, and some advertisers may take the view that having their name in Martha Stewart Living magazines would be to associate themselves with failure. Certainly, the stock price mirrors concerns. It had ticked along at around $13.60 until news came out that a verdict was imminent on Friday. Because deliberation had been shorter than expected, traders assumed – or at least bet – that she would be cleared, so
