Meredith, Sequential Brands Group Announce New 10-Year Licensing Agreement For Martha Stewart Media Brands

NEW YORK and DES MOINES, Iowa, Dec. 22, 2015

Under a new 10-year contract – which replaces a prior agreement reached with the former Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced on October 15, 2014 – Meredith's National Media Group will assume the editorial and operational teams for all print, digital and video functions for the Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings media brands, including www.marthastewart.com and www.marthastewartweddings.com.  Additionally, Meredith will continue to lead sales and marketing, circulation, production, and related functions.  The agreement continues to apply to the United States and Canada, with opportunities for further overseas expansion.

"The change will be invisible to the consumer, and will help to further strengthen the Martha Stewart brand in the advertising marketplace," said Meredith National Media Group President Tom Harty.

Martha Stewart, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, said, "This new agreement is a natural evolution of our partnership with Meredith Corporation and will allow our magazines to realize their full potential. I'm extremely proud of our editorial team and the work they do to deliver inspiring content to readers everywhere. I'm confident that the Martha Stewart editorial team, along with Meredith's leadership, will be a powerful combination that will evolve the opportunities for our invaluable content and grow the reach of our magazines for years to come."

Martha Stewart Living is published 10 times annually with a ratebase of 2.1 million.  Its readership is more than 10 million, including 1.75 million Millennial women, according to Mediamark Research Institute.  Martha Stewart Weddings, a quarterly publication, is the #1-selling bridal magazine on newsstands. The Meredith Weddings Group, a collaboration between Martha Stewart Weddings and mywedding.com, reaches a combined audience of 6.4 million and ranks #1 in page views per online visitor in its competitive set. Additionally, Martha Stewart's digital properties average 8 million monthly unique visitors and 60 million views, according to comScore.

"This is a groundbreaking partnership for the Martha Stewart media properties as they will now be fully integrated with one of the leading media companies in the world and well positioned to grow their audience," said William Sweedler, Chairman of Sequential. "This transaction allows our team to focus on our core strength which is activating new growth channels in the merchandising vertical."

The Martha Stewart brand reaches approximately 100 million consumers across all media and merchandising platforms each month. Martha Stewart branded products can be found in over 70 million households and has a growing retail presence in thousands of locations. Throughout the years, the Martha Stewart media and merchandising properties have been recognized by the industry for its award-winning content including multiple national magazine awards, multiple ASME awards for excellence in design and photography, 19 Emmys, 3 James Beard Awards, several Webby Awards and more.