With a new best-selling book drawing on her four decades in the media business, 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.

Black’s book, “Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)” www.cathieblack.com, explains how she achieved "the 360° life" — a blend of professional accomplishment and personal contentment — and how women can seize opportunity in the workplace. “Basic Black," which is #1 on the Wall Street Journal Business Books list (Nov. 6, 2007) and #3 on the New York Times Business Books List (Nov. 11, 2007), is published by Crown, an imprint of Random House.

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 2007, for the eighth consecutive year, Black was listed among Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in American Business." Black has also been included on Forbes magazine’s list of “The 100 Most Powerful Women” and Crain's list of New York City's "100 Most Influential Women in Business."

Black is a graduate of Trinity College, Washington, D.C., and holds eight honorary degrees.

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