Weve been following alleging that the 85 billion acquisition would substantially lesson competition and also result in higher prices for consumers. In some other media merger news out there, the coke brothers are acquiring time, inc. , two titans that have been struggling. To inject some 500 million of equity into meredith if the deal ends up going through. Ride sharing company uber announcing that hackers stole the personal data of 57 Million People of both drivers and customers. They were able to obtain emails and addresses but not credit card info or Social Security numbers. Now, uber kept the data breach a secret for more than a year and paid 100,000 ransom to the hackers to delete the data and keep that breach quiet. Taking a look now at the markets for you. The dow, s p 500, and nasdaq all hitting records this week. Shares of the retailer amazon hitting alltime high. All major markets closing in the green this week. Maria, back over to you. The media has seen drastic changes over the last year. Martha stuart has successfully navigated from print to broadcast to online. Her empire is wide and deep. The founder of Martha Stuart living omnimedia joins me right now. Martha stuart, great to see you. Great to see you. Give me a sense of the structure of the company. Youre the chief creative officer, member of the board of the consequential brand. Consequential is a licensing company. And we are we own a lot of different Lifestyle Brands and other kinds of brands. So we have brands that sell to walmart. We have brands that sell to the mass market. We have brands that sell to upscale. So we have very good brands and martha is one of the biggest brands, and we just continue to develop our products. Its the distinguishing feature of our kind of branding company versus, say, an iconic. We design in house. We were talking all week the at t deal with time warner, you have meredith possibly doing a deal with the magazine. Well, our precious magazine Martha Stuart living and wedding to meredith. And meredith is a very aggressive sell of very fine lifestyle magazines. They have better homes and gardens, they have Martha Stuart living, they have a lot of other kinds of magazines that really do they reach 100 Million People. They really resonate. Yeah. So meredith wanting to buy time, inc. , magazines is a very thats a very smart move. Now theyve gotten a huge infusion of cash from the coke brothers who probably want to get into media also in a way. They manufacture products that touch everybodys lives in america, the coke brothers. And thats a privately identify owned company. You know them very well. Absolutely. And i think its one of the biggest privatelyowned companies in the United States. And it will be the first into media. Supposed to be the next couple of days. So its really interesting. Its very exciting, and i can see exactly why theyre doing it. Coke brothers makes all the liners for every pampers sold and those are the women who buy the lifestyle magazine, of course. Theyre the homemakers, the housewives, the mothers. So why not reach them in another way via media . Yeah. So how have you changed the brand as everything has shifted . You have amazon eating peoples lunch on so many levels, truly. Well, were going to do a big job with amazon. Ive known amazon ever since they started at perkins, and i really admire what jeff bezos has done with his tenacity and brilliance. And hes a media mogul. He owns the washington post. He bought the biggest house in washington recently. He wants to really be in every single aspect of our lives. And hes doing it brilliant. So your deal will include i mean, delivering . Just selling. We already sell our meals through amazon. But were working on im doing pets and garden through amazon. Not only amazon. Its just another vertical, another way to sell beautiful products. I mean, everybody is selling on amazon and to say, oh, ill never put my products on amazon is crazy. Maria why would you do that . Because theyre selling. Maria exactly. And i dont know black friday is as important as it once was. When you have venues that you can buy anything any time. Well, its only about the price. Black friday pricing. Its the pricing. Its the sales price that people are going after. And its an excitement. Its really trying to get people out shop. Theyre not going to buy just the things that are on sale. Theyre going to buy other things too. Thats what the merchants need. We need to get people into stores again. Stores are really suffering because of online sales. But i think its 59 of americans want to shop online. Maria yeah. Either by their phone or sitting at their desk at home. Maria so what does it look like today to you in terms of the outlook out there . The consumer shopping. And we debate how strong the economy really is. Things are getting better. Well, the stock markets at a new high. I dont know thanks to who. But i think business is doing well. And i think that i think that we are recapturing some of the manufacturing that we lost. I think were doing a rather good job in the United States of making great product again. And putting it in the customers hands in various ways. I mean, you do have the qvc. You do have the amazons. You do have walmart and jet. All of these companies are doing a variety of ways to get product into the customers hands. Maria but look what happened to the mall business. Look what happened to the brick and mortar right now. Well, overexpansion in certain areas and not paying enough attention to an amazon, for example. That was crazy. Some stores didnt pay any attention to amazon. Maria yeah. I remember talking to a spanish retailer, the biggest retailer in spain. They said, oh, were not afraid of amazon. Maria oh, really . Look what happened to Grocery Stores when they announced the whole food deal. Yeah. And already whole foods has turned around. Thats what i read, anyway. Im not sure. But i read that whole foods is doing infinitely better because bezos lowered the prices at whole foods, they were going too high. People were turning away from it. And now theyve lowered the prices and sales are booming at whole foods. Alerts wouldnt you like one from the market when it might be time to buy or sell . With fidelitys realtime analytics, youll get clear, actionable alerts about potential Investment Opportunities in real time. Fidelity. Open an account today. Fidelity. Okay, iunderwear thatsd say this, bactually pretty. Er leak surprised . Its called always discreet boutique. It looks and fits like my underwear. I know what youre thinking. How can something this pretty protect . Hidden inside is a super absorbent core that quickly turns liquid to gel. For incredible protection. So i feel protected. And pretty. New always discreet boutique. Maria im reading an article here. Martha stuart and snoop dogg, tvs oddest couple. It seems like an odd couple. We are an odd couple. Maria but it seems like you have commonalities. Well, we were on the Justin Bieber roast, and we sat next to each other, and he had been on my show a couple of times. Hes fun to hang with, as they say. And remember, im not a rapper. Im not black. I am, you know, im sort of like a teacher. And snoop loves to learn. So we get to talking and some brilliant agent or somebody brilliant at vh1 decided that they were going to approach us about doing a cooking show. They wanted a contest. Snoop and i really decided we wanted to do a dinner party where we would invite all kinds of people, and we have great guests. This year, oh, my god. From jamie foxx to puff daddy to im trying to get eminem, and i want beyonce, of course. Maria shes now the highestpaid singer. Her album just got number one. This week. So exciting. Maria so its a cooking show. But its celebrity talk show. Its cooking, its talking, its very comedianic because snoop has a great sense of comedy and im developing it. And we have a lot of fun. Its really fun. Maria are you attracting a younger audience . Is that what this is about . Oh, yes. But not only are we attracting the young, the usual vh1, vh1 is now experiencing a whole new shift in demographic because my fans are watching, and its bringing in a whole new audience, so were its i call it a culture medaling. Maria when you see things like netflix, hulu, all of the streaming going on, does it give you, you know, a lightbulb in saying. Okay. This is how i need to shift my business because thats the whole thing. I mean, you see amazon paying all of this money for original content. Content is king, and youve got it. Youre creating it. Yes. Well, we have a huge library of content that is being we can divvy it up. We can cut and splice and paste, and we have a lot of valuable content that i think is being used well now. And it will be used even better in the future. I think content edited content is the way of the future. Theres been too much, oh, everybody can do everything, and we have to find out the best ways to do things. Maria right . And thats whats happening now. Finally, the internet, that vast, vast internet offering billions of pieces of information has to be cure rated and edited, and i think were working on that. Maria let me ask you if youre expecting a big change from tax reform. Were talking about all of these new policies coming out of the white house. Do you see a new tax package impacting the business in a positive way . Well, you know, i keep thinking, you know, thinking about tax reform. What ive heard and im not an expert at all. I am not in the accounting business, and im pretty terrible about that. No, but im thinking im probably going to benefit from it. Maria right . But is my neighbor going to benefit from it . Is somebody i know, my housekeeper who makes so much less than i make, is she going to benefit from it . I dont think its equitable. Rushing, rushing, rushing through a new way to cut taxes for the wealthy as they say, it will probably help me. But im not thinking about just me. Maria well, im talking about small business, really. 25 pass rate and a 20 corporate rate. That has got to be a positive. Well, i dont know for about small business. You read so many different things. No one has come out with a very clear synopsis of what this tax reform bill is really about. You should do that. You should make it. Maria im doing it. Every day, thats what im doing. Im definitely doing it. Thank you so much for that. Martha, great to have you on the show today. Thank you. Maria thank you so much. Martha stuart. Stay right there. More wall street week after this. Coming up from at t and time warner and the coke brothers in time, inc. Hearst ceo Steve Schwartz talks about ceo Steve Schwartz talks about that ceo Steve Schwartz talks about that let out your inner child at the lexus december to remember sales event. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Helping small businesses. Damage your vehicle . We got you covered. [ glass shatters ] Property Damage . Thats what general liabilitys for. What . injured employee . Ow. Workers comp helps you pay for a replacement. Whats happening . This is carla. Hows it going . And if anything comes up, our experts are standing by. Boo yes or no . Do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet . Do you want 4. 95 commissions for stocks, 0. 50 options contracts . 1. 50 futures contracts . What about a dedicated service team of trading specialists . Did you say yes . Good, then its time for power e trade. The platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. Looks like we have a couple seconds left. Lets do some card twirling twirling cards e trade. The original place to invest online. Or a little internet machine . It makes you wonder shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Maria welcome back. No sector has seen more change recently than the media industry. I spoke with the ceo of hearst, Steve Schwartz about his company taking on the challenges of the changing media landscape and what is ahead. Its affecting all sectors. Our biggest sector of media is actually television. But, look, there is more great media than consumers have time to consume, and there are more places to put advertising than there really is advertising. So it has put more pressure on all the Consumer Media businesses. No question. Maria when you see somebody like a disney saying, look, were not going to be selling our shows, giving content away anymore. Were going to do our own streaming service. Is that where this is going . I mean, youve got very important stations across the country. What do you do when peoples choices or thoughts are changing in terms of how they want that delivered . Well, disney is our great partner. We own 20 of espn. We jointly own the history channels. And i think what bob iger is doing with this new streaming initiative is absolutely the right thing to do. Maria will you be doing Something Like that . Well, you know, espn, of course, will certainly be doing. And, yes, i think everybody is looking at how can they have a deeper relationship with the consumer . And, of course, a deeper digital relationship with the consumers very important. Maria yeah, thats a good point. Its that customer that you have, you just have to figure out how you can go deeper with me. Let me ask you about espn. Look, we know that ratings are down, obviously. This has been an issue for disney. Whats been the impact on hearst . Well, first of all, i think espn is still the best brand in media. And the sector has gotten harder but youre talking about a very unique asset. No question. Both the advertising landscape and the subscription landscape has gotten harder for all tv brands. Maria absolutely. But if theres a brand youre going to bet on, i would say its espn. Maria do you think the ratings have been impacted by this whole kneeling controversy . Or is this Something Else . I just think its the general that Technology Allows for so many more options, so i think all shows, whether theyre entertainment or sports or what have you, are, you know, more competitive environment for audience. Maria let me ask you about whats going on in your business in terms of consolidation. We see the reports in disney, talking to fox acquiring discovery, networks doubling down on content. Is content king to the extent that you want to even add more of it . How will your business change, given all the deal flow going on around you . I think you have to look at consolidation on a case by case basis. We recently announced that we are acquiring the fabulous magazine brands. Mens wealth, Womens Health prevention. We have been selectively buying newspapers adjacent to areas where we already own newspapers. We bought a couple television stations over the past years. We just look at it on a case by case basis. Maria okay. So do you think that the deal flow picks up . As we speak, at t is trying to finish its deal with time warner. We dont know where that stands yet, and weve got all of the players trying to figure out how am i going to scale up in terms of growth . I think it will i dont think there will be a huge wave, but i think, clearly, classic Business Case is in a more difficult market. You often see consolidation for the very at least to take some get some costing efficiencies in the business. How will the at t time warner deal impact your business, for example . Well, it remains to be seen. At t, obviously, a very powerful company adding these very powerful brands. I think it will all depend on what they agree with the government in terms of how they are going to operate going forward. Maria do you think they should sell either cnn or directv . Im not involved enough to know what the regulators would do. I do think in general in this country, we have many Fabulous Companies that in their sector go beyond media or even beyond telecom. In their sector have become very powerful, and it is something that regulators and policy makers have to look at on a regular basis because when companies become too big and powerful, it can choke off new Business Development and job creation and what have you. Maria so you recently added to some of your print portfolio, whether its the mens health and those magazines or newspapers. Do you think were going to physically be looking at a newspaper to get our news in ten years . Ten years is a long time. Hard to say. Five years. Absolutely. Yes . Absolutely five years, and i hope longer. I still prefer print if i can get it. Our Newspaper Group is looking like they will deliver their sixth Straight Year of profit growth. So i am still bullish on newspapers and magazines. But, look, clearly, its a tougher environment and digital is on the rise and print is clearly not rising. Maria let me ask you about the policy in washington. Does it impact your business . I think that for business in general, the Corporate Tax cut is very important, and i give credit to the Business Roundtable jamie diamond and josh bolton got in the Business Community together to say that this is our highest priority. Corporate tax cut, the ability to repatriate earnings overseas and going to a territorial system is very, very important. And i think theres actually bipartisan support for that. It gets more complicated when you get onto the individual side. And, clearly, more work to be done there. Were a new york company. The talk about eliminating the state and local Tax Deduction is very painful for new york, and were hopeful that something can be done there. Maria my thanks to Steve Schwartz joining us there. So how old do you want to be when you retire . Uhh, i was thinking around 70. Alright, and before that . You mean after that . No, im talking before that. Do you have things you want to