Despite the travails of its namesake, Martha Stewart Living readers are renewing their subscriptions at above-industry levels, the Associated Press reported recently.
While anecdotal evidence suggests that women are renewing out of solidarity, another reason for the increase is that folks like to own a little piece of scandal. As nobody got hurt or lost scads of money, this is an easy one to embrace. The whole shebang smacks of a brilliant, carefully orchestrated marketing strategy.
But renewals are bound to slip as Stewart enters her post-incarceration probation period and maintains a clean image. That is, unless the magazine generates a few circulation-boosting strategies. Some suggestions follow.
Subscribers will expect the magazine to tip whether Stewart, hardened by her stint in the pokey, will headline a celebrity boxing match. Although Martha Stewart Living doesn’t have a sports section, right around her release date it may feature Stewart demonstrating how vintage grosgrain ribbon makes an ideal hand-wrap before lacing up the 16-ounce gloves.
Assume that the coverage of Stewart’s bad behavior is lifting renewal rates. Should she want to do right by her magazine, she ought to earn some extra time in the big house. Every additional 30-day sentence should be good for at least a 1% increase in renewals.
For example, a carefully calibrated set of snooty observations about the tackiness of guard uniforms should earn her 60 additional days
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