Kellogg names CEO

Kellogg Co., the nation’s largest cereal maker, appointed a board member with decades of branding experience to succeed its outgoing chairman and chief executive.

James M. Jenness, a former advertising executive and member of the Kellogg board of directors since 2000, is set to succeed Carlos Gutierrez, 51, who was tapped Monday by President Bush to be the nation’s commerce secretary.

Jenness previously led Integrated Merchandising Systems LLC, which specializes in retail promotion and branded merchandising.

Communications

Martha’s magazine attracts renewals

In a sign that many consumers aren’t concerned by Martha Stewart’s personal legal travails, readers of her flagship magazine are renewing their subscriptions at a pace ahead of industry norms.

Such faithful readership may help encourage the return of advertisers who haven’t demonstrated the same loyalty since the magazine’s eponymous founder became tainted by a stock-trading scandal in June 2002.

Nearly 70 percent of Martha Stewart Living subscribers said they planned to renew their subscriptions, according to a September survey conducted for WPP Group PLC’s Mediaedge:cia.

Severance

Merck & Co. moves to retain executives

Merck & Co. Inc. has adopted a new severance plan that offers some executives one-time payments of up to triple their salary and other perks if the troubled pharmaceutical giant is acquired and they lose their jobs.

The plan, disclosed in an SEC filing Monday, is aimed at keeping top Merck executives from jumping ship as the company struggles with the fallout from the recall of its widely used arthritis drug Vioxx because of increased risks for heart attacks.

Agriculture

Fall harvest continues

Wet fields continue to delay the end of the fall harvest, the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service said Monday.

Kansas farmers have cut 89 percent of their soybeans, 10 percentage points behind what was in the bin at this point last year. Also slow is the harvest of milo, now 85 percent cut.

Meanwhile, about 96 percent of the 2005 wheat crop has emerged, with conditions rated as 18 percent excellent, 59 percent good, 19 percent fair, 3 percent poor and 1 percent very poor.

Markets

Wal-Mart shares slide

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s share price tumbled nearly 4 percent Monday after the world’s largest retailer lowered its November sales forecast over the weekend, disappointing some analysts.

Wal-Mart shares fell $2.17, or 3.9 percent, to close at $53.15 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.