Martha’s legacy: Verlyn Klinkenborg writes in the NY Times today that Martha Stewart’s legacy is a good thing.

Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Well, now that Dave Barry has alerted his troops, I know where I’ll be tomorrow: Anywhere but here.

Spinning circulation news: The next time you need to announce that your magazine is losing readers, remember this item from today’s MediaDaily News:

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance announced plans to gradually reduce its circulation over the next year, from one million to 800,000 by April 2005. In doing so, the mag believes it will be able to better target the affluent, active investors and consumers who comprise much of its reader base.

Priceless.

Custom publishing update: I’ve blogged previously (and here) about looking forward to what Kurt Andersen (and now, Simon Dumenco) do with the Benetton’s customer magazine, Colors.

Keith Kelly gives an update (hurry, this link will die soon) on the magazine’s plans in this morning’s NY Post:

COLORS, the unconventional magazine sponsored by Italian fashion designer Benetton, will have a new look and a New York-based team to replace a staff based in Treviso, Italy when the next issue hits the stands in May.

Editorial Director Kurt Andersen and Editor-in-Chief Simon Dumenco, who took over earlier this year, plan to rev up the American presence and triple the newsstand draw from 25,000 a copy to roughly 75,000 by year end.

“We’re trying to give it a profile here in the U.S. again,” said Andersen. “I think our version will be more like the original version, which had fun stuff as well as the serious. I’d say Colors has been pretty unrelentingly serious of late.”

I’m looking foward to the great things this combination of talent, intellect and vision can publish.

(via mediabistro.com)

;- ) Schloarship : It is reassuring to discover that professors at our nation’s top universities are doing important research into where the smiley face came from.