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Cathleen Black dubbed The First Lady of American Magazines and one of the leading figures in American publishing over the past two decades by the Financial Times heads Hearst Magazines, a division of Hearst Corporation and one of the world’s largest publishers of monthly magazines. She manages the financial performance and development of some of the industry's best-known titles: Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper's BAZAAR, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Redbook, and Town & Country -- 19 magazines in all. She also oversees nearly 200 international editions of those magazines in more than 100 countries. Most recently, she oversaw the launch of Quick & Simple, Hearst’s first weekly magazine in the U.S.
Aggressive international development worldwide as well as significant digital expansion are two key priority areas for Black, with all magazines having new websites in 2007.
Having begun her career in advertising sales with several magazines, including Holiday and Ms., she made publishing history in 1979 when she became the first woman publisher of a weekly consumer magazine: New York.
Black is widely credited for the success of USA Today, where for eight years starting in 1983, she was first president, then publisher, as well as a board member and executive vice president/marketing of Gannett, its parent company. In 1991 she became president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, the industry’s largest trade group, where she served for five years before joining Hearst.
She serves as a member of the boards of IBM and the Coca-Cola Company, and held a two-year term (1999-2001) as chairman of the Magazine Publishers of America. She is also a board member of the Advertising Council, a trustee of The University of Notre Dame and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2006, she made Forbes magazine’s list of The 100 Most Powerful Women and was listed among Fortune magazine’s 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business for the seventh consecutive year.
Black is a graduate of Trinity College, Washington, D.C., and holds eight honorary degrees.
No one in New York embodies the magazine business like Cathleen Black. The Hearst Magazines president is a tireless spokeswoman for the industry Perhaps even more striking is her string of successes for Hearst, which includes the birth of O, The Oprah Magazine, a magazine launch that was so hot it inspired other celebrity titles During Ms. Black’s six-year tenure at the $1.5 billion company, she has maintained the health of big brands like Cosmopolitan [and] brought forth new favorites like Marie Claire As electronic media continue to carve into the market for the printed word, her outspoken commitment to magazines will be invaluable to the industry. -- Crain’s New York Business, June 17, 2002 | 