Deconstructing Byron – Vol. 14
Time Takes Martha
By Andrew Ritchie
Page after Page of Success
In chapter 13 of Martha Inc. Byron makes short work of Martha’s forays into magazine publishing. Nowhere is there reference to how she came up with the title for the magazine, how she conceived of the idea and how it all came together. Instead he presents readers with a hasty and dismissive retelling of the magazine’s launch in 1990, proving that without Martha’s cooperation his biography is little more than a notebook in the vast library of Martha’s life.
A closer look at some research would reveal that Martha came up with the title, Living, for her magazine during a brainstorming brunch at Turkey Hill with her girlfriends. They tossed out ideas and wrote huge lists of possibilities. She finally settled on Living since it summed up the overall theme of the magazine, which is devoted to home, garden and lifestyle subjects.
Martha Does Time
It was in November of 1990 that Martha, who had signed on with Time Warner, launched her magazine. It began with a test run of 500,000 copies, circulated nationwide, and was 130 pages. Martha was on the cover and the content was primarily about Martha’s lifestyle, written in an educational and inspirational tone designed to help others live better, more comfortable lives.
The men at Time hated the idea. Chris Meigher and Eric Thorkilsen, both Time executives, called Martha an egomaniac and admitted in interviews with Byron that they often rolled their eyes when she left the room, calling her an "egomaniac" and "a pain in the ass."
All of this was irrelevant to Martha who would soon prove to them how strong her ideas actually were. The test issue was a massive success. Time received a 70% response rate to the magazine, which in magazine publication is off the charts. They also received 100,000 subscription orders from people who had not even seen the magazine yet. In addition, Time had been hoping to get twenty ad pages in the test issue and instead got twenty-five pages, with advertisers paying nearly $8,000 per page. Everyone was astounded by the huge success, except Martha who had conceived of the idea nearly five years prior. And here she was, realizing another of her dreams while others watched in amazement.
Time took the wonderful news to Kmart, looking for more advertising dollars, and when Joe Antonini, the president of Kmart Corp. at the time, saw the numbers he knew he had to take part. He made a deal with Time Warner to buy two advertising spreads in each issue.
It was the synergy concept fully realized: Martha, the Kmart spokesperson who had been on TV commercials and in magazine ads, now had a way of advertising herself through a magazine with her name on it; the content was hers; the ideas were hers and she was on the cover; the cross referencing between Kmart’s ads, her books, her videos, and now her magazine, made Martha ubiquitous. If she wasn’t at a book signing she was opening another Kmart store; if you didn’t catch her on her talk show appearances, she was in Kmart ads, on TV and in the newspaper; if you missed her syndicated column in The New York Times, you now had her magazine to turn to for ideas. She was everywhere.
That's So Very Martha....
All of this success not only made Martha Stewart a household name, it made the name "Martha" a descriptive term for everything tidy and decorative, as Byron notes in this chapter. A perfectly appointed Christmas tree would be labeled "very Martha" by admiring friends, as would a spectacular garden or the smell of a homemade pie.
Byron does very little in this book to describe the key elements of Martha’s vision and style. Rather, he mocks it by using sarcastic hyperbole in descriptions of her idealism, like this one:
"A loving, yearning, lifelong desire for a place of daffodil daydreams and tea in the afternoon, where all lips smile, all clothes are linen, all voices murmur and all shades are pastel."
One can feel the breeze caused by Byron’s constant eye-rolling as he devalues the crux of Martha’s success, which is a very strong and benevolent vision based on helping others take pride in their chores and their work ethic in the home. At one point he calls the magazine "blather."
Byron rests on the pervasive image of Martha as the "Queen of Domesticity" rather than analyzing the quality of Martha’s ideas. He opts for mockery, tossing fair and balanced insight to the wind, so he can entertain himself while tearing her down.
Byron, along with the men at Time, was not alone in an effort to criticize Martha at every turn. As Martha’s success grew ever more visible in the 1990s so too did the vociferous media backlash against her.
The Gotcha Game
"Martha sightings" became the name of the game for just about every gossip columnist in New York and Connecticut – a sad and pathetic attempt to tear down a successful, attractive, female entrepreneur. They’d watch closely for any sign of disturbance or disconnect in Martha’s private life and then inflate it to outrageous proportions, seemingly in an attempt to amuse the gawking public. Even a writer at Life magazine, Dan Okrent, wondered aloud in one of his columns, "Why is Martha Stewart Living?"
Rather than defend Martha, or at least offer a countering view, Byron adds insult to injury, noting that Martha was too busy to live the life she promoted in her magazine and had instead hired "immigrant workers" to take over the "mule work" that Andy had been assigned while the pair had been married. He stresses that Martha was "hyperactive" and uses even more stage and film terminology by saying that "the angry and ugly streak in her nature…began to peek from behind the local curtain of Westport…"
At the time of the magazine launch, however, it was a writer from New York magazine named Jeannie Kasindorf who lambasted Martha’s personality and conduct in a cover story about her. With references to poor conduct on jets and spiteful quotes from Martha about Andy, Kasindorf made Martha out to be a monster of a woman who was bent on greed. It was just the beginning of an endless series of attacks by people who were jealous of Martha's talent and success.
No one in Martha’s life was left untouched by Kasindorf’s story. Even Martha’s daughter, Alexis, was described by Kasindorf as "a pouty, smart-ass version of Martha Stewart who walks around in a permanent cloud of depression."
Byron seems to frustratingly admit that none of this seemed to have any effect on Martha’s success, which was only just gaining its momentum. Next, Martha would not only buy back her award-winning magazine from Time, but take on TV in the process. Martha Stewart was still Living.
The New Byron Unabridged Dictionary, Chapter 13:
Chris Byron loves to use colorful language to describe Martha Stewart. Here are a few of the choice words selected from Chapter 13:
Martha’s vortex
Pain in the ass
Egomaniac
Her prima donna antics
Hyperactive
Frightening
Angry
Ugly
Byron left one word out: Misogynist. We only wish journalists like Chris Byron would look that one up.
Also, visit The Pantry each month for a closer look at the cover subject of Martha Stewart Living Magazine with insightful articles that broaden the scope of the cover topic, written by Andrew Ritchie
