brusque

=“Hearst’s Cathie Black: No Nonsense Tips from a Magazine Maven (San Francisco Chronicle)
=“A Career of Firsts” (Crain’s Most Influential Women in NYC Business)

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Picture Credits: Dow Jones & Company and Jonathan Becker

May 4, 2009 Posted by ej | Career, Fashion, Leadership, People, Politics, Shopping | Business, Business School, Career, Fashion, Harvard MBA, Leadership, Politics, Shopping, Women | Leave a Comment

Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business: #49 Cathie Black

This week, we introduce you to #49 on Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list. She is Magazine Maven, Cathleen Black, President of Hearst Magazines!

Cathie Black,

President
Hearst Magazines

2007 rank: 43
Age: 64

Hearst Magazines’ 2007 ad revenues from titles like Cosmopolitan, O, and Esquire rose 9%, to $2.7 billion. Since Hearst Corp. lost its CEO, Victor Ganzi, in July, Black is a candidate to succeed him, but her age works against her. She’s on the boards of IBM and Coca-Cola, and just wrote a hit memoir, Basic Black.

Click here to read more about her:

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Picture Credit: Hearst Magazines

April 7, 2009 Posted by ej | Leadership, Magazines | Books, Business, Fashion, Leadership, Magazines, Women | Leave a Comment

Time Inc. and Lexus Experiment with Made-to-Order Magazines: How to Get Yours

Have you ever wished for a magazine where you determine the content? How about a mix of Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf, and/or Travel + Leisure? Well, Time Inc. and Lexus are running an experiment that you may be interested in.

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Made-to-order Magazines Let Readers Choose

Time Inc. experiment aims to mimic Web’s personalized news feeds.

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – Time Inc. is experimenting with a customized magazine that combines reader-selected sections from eight publications as it tries to mimic in printed form the personalized news feeds that have become popular on the Internet.

Called “mine,” the five-issue, 10-week experiment also aligns readers with the branding message that its sole advertising partner, Toyota Motor Corp., has for its new Lexus 2010 RX sport utility vehicle: It’s as customizable as the magazine carrying its ads.

The magazine is free, but the print edition is limited to the first 31,000 respondents, while an online version is available for another 200,000.

Sign-ups are available immediately at http://www.timeinc.com/mine, with the first issue to be shipped in the mail in early April, and then once every two weeks. Online subscribers will get digital editions that look just like the printed version, but in a special format that allows virtual page turns with clicks. A promotional push for the magazine kicks off Friday.

Readers can select five titles from eight published by subsidiaries of Time Warner Inc. and American Express Co.: Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf, and Travel + Leisure.

Editors will pre-select the stories that make it into every biweekly issue, and readers won’t have the option of changing the picks from issue to issue. More . . .

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March 26, 2009 Posted by ej | Magazines, Marketing | Automotive, Business, Fashion, Food, Lexus, Magazines, Marketing, Money, Sports, Women | Leave a Comment

High-Powered and Low-Key: Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett

A Profile of Obama Adviser, Valerie Jarrett. See below for additional articles on her.

High-Powered and Low Key

Washington Observes the Influence of Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett

Michael A. Fletcher, The Washington Post

The nation’s mayors felt left out in the weeks after President Obama’s election. He had met with the governors, but not them. Then, to their surprise, he picked a non-mayor to head his new office of urban affairs. The unhappiness only grew as the president’s economic stimulus package promised to funnel billions of dollars directly into the coffers of states, leaving mayors wondering about their role.

As the frustration mounted, some began grumbling about their White House contact, Valerie Jarrett. “They were starting to get the sense, starting to comment that maybe Valerie Jarrett isn’t the person to bring their concerns to the highest level of the White House,” said Michael Strautmanis, Jarrett’s chief of staff.

They soon learned otherwise.

Before long, Jarrett hosted a forum for more than 80 mayors in the White House East Room, where she moderated a discussion with five Cabinet secretaries who explained how the stimulus plan would help cities. The event last month was capped by remarks from both the vice president and the president. Spotting a once-skeptical mayor after the session, Strautmanis could not resist flicking a little jab. “What do you think of Valerie Jarrett now?” he asked.

Jarrett, 52, serves as senior adviser to the president, and she oversees the Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs. She is the principal contact for groups wanting to reach the White House, a stated focus of an administration that prides itself on transparency and outreach to an unprecedented array of grass-roots organizations. Jarrett and her staff have organized meetings and events that bring 450 people a week to the White House. She also recommends and interviews people for top jobs in the administration, is a daily presence in the president’s senior staff meetings, and is someone Obama often calls on for a reality check.

But Jarrett’s array of titles and duties fail to convey the breadth of her influence, which is rooted in a long relationship built on a foundation of trust with the Obamas. More . . .

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Capital Cool: Members of The White House Staff Illustrate the New Rules for Dress in the Workplace

Illustrating the new rules on how to dress for work.

Capital Cool - Members of The White House Staff Illustrate the New Rules for Fashion in the Workplace (Click image to see Slideshow)

Capital Cool

Taking a cue from Michelle Obama, Joe Zee redefines women’s fashion role in the workplace.

Joe Zee, Elle

A lawyer friend recently remarked over dinner that her office desperately needed my help. It was full of smart, accomplished women, but they just couldn’t get their clothes right. Look at Michelle Obama, she continued, who, when she was an associate at a Chicago law firm, didn’t trade her style for credibility. She’s certain Michelle was the picture of chic, elegance, and authority. (And hell, she landed her husband at that firm!) My friend had a point: Why have working women put style on the back burner?

As her profile has risen, Michelle has in some ways become a reluctant style hero at the same time that she’s ushered in a new era in political fashion. She’s the ultimate career mom who, balancing success with family in Jimmy Choos and J.Crew, raised the workplace fashion stakes. Will the messages of style hope and sartorial change reach the young women who will now be working at the White House? My next challenge!

Two days after the inauguration, I headed to DC to style seven of the smart, successful—and let it be said, beautiful—women from this new administration and, in doing so, illustrate the new rules for how to dress for work. DC has long been in a style recession. My No. 1 rule? Break all the rules—which is why I dubbed them “The No-Hose Administration.”

From what I’ve seen over the years, getting it right at the office can be tough. It’s a daily high-pressure game: You want to appear authoritative and professional but not look like a career drone. Employee handbooks may highlight terms like business casual and corporate attire, but what does it all mean? How do you start to decipher these complex codes that can ultimately get us hired, fired, promoted, or just plain noticed? April being our Work Issue, I am offering my own get-ahead guide to How to Look Good and Still Succeed in Business. More . . .

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Picture Credit: Elle Magazine

March 24, 2009 Posted by ej | Fashion, Leadership, People, Shopping, The First Lady | Business, Career, Fashion, Leadership, Magazines, Michelle Obama, Obama, Shopping, Women | Leave a Comment

Michelle Obama’s Sleevegate: Why America Can’t Handle Her Bare Arms

michelle-obama-official-portrait2 Saw this over at The Huffington Post. It’s written by Bonnie Fuller, Founder Bonnie Fuller Media. The key question is this: Why do people care if Michelle Obama goes sleeveless?

Click through the link at the end of the article and check out the pix of Jackie O in her sleeveless outfits.

“Is Michelle Obama supposed to wear a burka? Since when are a woman’s arms considered an erogenous zone here in America? Why would it be inappropriate for the First Lady to attend her husband’s address to Congress in a beautiful, purple Narcisco Rodriguez SLEEVELESS dress?

Whoever those twitterers — or should I call them “twits” — are out there who have raised the question of propriety, they should not only get a life, but also a history book. Not only have many First Ladies been photographed at official state and White House events, America’s most fashionable previous First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy practically made sleeveless looks her uniform, whether they were dresses or two piece shirt and skirt ensembles. ” More . . .

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March 8, 2009 Posted by ej | Fashion, Politics, The First Lady | Fashion, Fitness, Michelle Obama, Politics | Leave a Comment

Saks Shoe Department Gets Own ZIP code

And in todaaaaay’s news . . . >: )

“Saks shoe department gets own ZIP code”

Thu May 24, 10:26 PM ET

“Saks Fifth Avenue says its new shoe department is so big and fancy it’s getting its own ZIP code.

The quintessential Manhattan store is revamping its shoe department, and when it moves from the fourth floor to the eighth floor in August customers will be able to send mail to 10022-SHOE.

“We believe it’s such a big move for us it deserves its own ZIP code,” Saks spokeswoman Lesley Langsam Kennedy said Thursday. “We wanted to make it a destination.”

The U.S. Postal Service said it worked with the retailer on the new ZIP code, which is just promotional. Only the last four characters, which aren’t necessary when you’re mailing something, are specialized, and they won’t be read by sorting machines. The rest of the midtown neighborhood, which includes St. Patrick’s Cathedral, shares 10022.

The new 8,500-square-foot Saks showroom at the flagship Fifth Avenue store will have more shoes, more service and more stock room capability, Langsam Kennedy said. It also will feature a VIP room for . . .

Click here to read the rest of the article:
“Saks Shoe Department Gets Own Zip Code” (Yahoo! News)

Click here to head to the Saks Website:
Saks Fifth Avenue

Okay, don’t kill me. It’s the holiday weekend and the news is a little slow today.