Stewart built an empire on recipes and decorating tips

"In a world of ever-changing taste, Martha Stewart has risen and fallen like a bad souffle. The domestic diva is now the convicted criminal," says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"A jury's verdict Friday rewrote the happy-ever-after ending to the fairy tale of a good little girl who grew up to become a rich and powerful media mogul whose very name was synonymous with gracious living," the paper adds.

"The verdict is... a tremendous blow to the fortunes of Ms Stewart, who rose from humble working-class roots in Nutley, NJ, to create a catering company that came to embody her clean-cut, vaguely patrician style," resumes the New York Times.

"All that seems jeopardised...at least as far as Ms Stewart's signature control is concerned," it says.

No one - no matter how important or famous - could be allowed to mislead the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission Washington Post

"The outlook for Stewart's many media products... is grim," the Chicago Tribune quotes industry observers as saying about the future of the diva's Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.

"It's not a good thing, as Martha would say," the paper quotes Brenda White, media director at Chicago-based Starcom MediaVest Group, which regularly places advertising in Martha Stewart Living magazine.

"The verdict won't sink the company overnight, but where it ends up in the long-term is difficult to say," TK MacKay, stock analyst with Morningstar in Chicago, tells the Chicago Tribune.

The paper said it would publish Stewart's column for the last time on Sunday.

Blunt message

The US press also says Stewart's conviction may have more psychological impact than legal significance for most of the high-profile corporate fraud cases pending against former chief executives, including such companies as Enron and WorldCom.

"No one - no matter how important or famous - could be allowed to mislead the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission," says the Washington Post.

"The message is: Don't engage in this type of corruption because we will go after you," the paper quotes US Attorney David N Kelley.

"This is about a woman who engineered her own destruction by taking a very small problem and turning it into an enormous one that will destroy her life and her career," the Boston Globe quotes David Gourevitch, former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement lawyer, as saying.