Martha Stewart pulls plug on Whole Living

Alas, Whole Living is dying.

The Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia publication, which had been in negotiations to be sold to OpenGate Capital and Jack Kliger, will instead shut down after talks between the two sides collapsed, leaving Whole Living without a buyer.

MSLO had said earlier this year that it could not afford to keep publishing the title. It is also folding Everyday Food into Martha Stewart Living as the company moves to focus more narrowly on its core magazines.

According to reports, Whole Living was bleeding some $4 million per year. Talks with OpenGate, the owner of TV Guide Magazine, and Kliger had the sale price at $2.5 million.

The last issue of Whole Living is the January/February edition. Sixteen editorial staffers will likely lose their jobs.

MSLO bought Whole Living seven years ago at a price of $6 million. It quickly bumped up its rate base to 750,000, which had the effect of pricing out the small-business natural foods and remedies advertisers who supported the previously much smaller publication, called Body + Soul.

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