I was at the Prism Award luncheon two weeks ago. This annual scholarship fund-raiser for my alma mater—NYU Center for Graphic Communications Management & Technology—honored Cathie Black, the President of Hearst Magazines. The event was written up in our own PrintCEO blog. Black, author of the autobiographical and management advice best seller Basic Black, had some wide-ranging comments about magazines and media. Her stories about starting USA Today and surviving its rocky beginnings were quite amusing in light of its current status in the newspaper business.

It is clear that she loves the medium and its ability to engage readers with both editorial and advertising content. She was enthusiastic in the stories she related about the global nature of Hearst's titles. She noted that the Russian edition of Cosmopolitan sells 1 million copies per month ("with no returns," she commented, delightedly) and is the largest selling edition in all of Europe. The latest issue was so thick, it had to be printed in two printing plants. She implied that there were many like situations, where Hearst has made inroads in late-blooming economies in establishing its brand. Indeed, that would be understandable to me, as countries where there was historically little publishing freedom would require some time to develop publishing industries of their own, and there would be marvelous opportunities for global publishers who understood these markets to do quite well.

Russia would be a prime market, I imagine, but South Korea, with a well-entrenched affinity for electronic media, would not. Every market is different. On the subject of new media, Black stated, "We have to be completely agnostic about content." For that reason, Hearst has been upgrading websites, has acquired four digital media companies, and is active in mobile media. She added, "We want to put our markers down." So Hearst is looking for acquisitions and continued expansion internationally.