Lifestyle Battle
Fixer Upper’s Joanna Gaines takes aim at Martha Stewart’s empire.
For decades, self-made billionaire Martha Stewart has reigned as the undisputed diva of domesticity, with an empire that’s included talk shows, a magazine and a home decor line. But now Martha, 76, has some serious competition: HGTV darling Joanna Gaines, 39. On Sept. 12, Target announced that Joanna and her husband and Fixer Upper co- star, Chip, 42, would be launching Hearth & Hand With Magnolia, a home and lifestyle brand available exclusively at Target, later this fall. It sounds awfully similar to Martha’s former partnership with Kmart (which ended in 2009). And it’s not the first time Joanna’s taken a page from Martha’s book. Last October, she and Chip launched quarterly magazine The Magnolia Journal, a competitor to Martha Stewart Living.
Martha’s taken notice. “Martha considers herself the original lifestyle expert,” says an insider, “but she does recognize Joanna’s style and secretly worries about their competing magazine sales.” As she should. Themagnolia Journal quickly racked up 700,000 paid subscribers heading into the release of its third issue in May, according to its publisher, Meredith Corporation. Those numbers lag behind Martha’s magazine (also published by Meredith), which has 1.8 million subscribers, but Living has been around since 1990. Joanna’s star is clearly on the rise. The Season 4 finale of Fixer Upper attracted 5.21 million viewers, making it the second-highest-rated show on basic cable ( behind only The Walking Dead). And when it comes to social media, Joanna is the clear winner. She has more than 5 million Instagram followers — which puts her nearly 4 million ahead of Martha. “Martha is always checking out the latest crop of competition,” notes the insider. “Put it this way: Martha is watching Joanna very carefully.”