Stewart’s magazine scales back

Martha Stewart Living magazine will cut its guaranteed circulation nearly 22% beginning in January, acknowledging readership declines in the midst of a stock trade scandal involving founder Martha Stewart.

Magazine executives have begun warning advertisers that the rate base, or the number of readers guaranteed to advertisers, will drop to 1.8 million from 2.3 million next year. Ad rates will drop too.

Martha Stewart Living, the flagship magazine in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., was once one of the fastest-growing mass-market magazines. But bad publicity surrounding its founder and namesake appears to be taking a toll. Ad pages are down 31% through September 2003, compared with the same period last year, according to the Publisher’s Information Bureau.