The Effects of
Hearst Corporation’s Magazines
on International Markets
Renee Troy-Mebane
Jenna C. Wise
Queens University of Charlotte
Introduction
• Purpose
▫ To explore, using transnational media management
theory, how Hearst Corporation’s international
magazines, particularly Cosmopolitan Magazine,
affect the international cultures in which they are
marketed and how those markets affect Hearst
Corporation’s publications
• Justification
▫ This inquiry is relevant to understanding the ways
transnational media organizations export biased
content to international markets and how foreign
markets reinforce and support those dominant
ideologies through local productions.
Hearst Corporation
• 1887: William Randolph Hearst starts a newspaper publishing company
▫ Over the course of his ownership, Hearst experiments with every aspect of
newspapers: layout, photography, color press, comics, editorial crusades
• 1920s-1930s: Hearst is largest media conglomerate in the world
• 1951: W.R. Hearst dies
▫ W.R. Hearst wills that 99.9% of company’s common stock given to two charitable
trusts controlled by a board of trustees comprised of 5 family members and 8 nonfamily members; this board also owns and selects the 24-member board of the
Hearst Corporation
• Since the 1970s, Hearst has worked to increase its global presence
• Mission (then and now): To inform, entertain, and inspire
• Culture: Driven by a legacy of innovation and a love of what’s next
Current Portfolio of Interests
• 15 daily & 34 weekly newspapers
▫
Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, Albany Times Union
• Hundreds of international magazines
▫
Esquire, Marie Claire, Road & Track, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics
• Broadcasting: 29 television stations
▫
Reach a combined 18% of US viewers
• Entertainment & syndication
▫
Ownership in multiple cable networks

▫
Lifetime, A&E, ESPN, History
Ownership in multiple television production companies
• Business media, investments, & joint ventures
▫
Automotive, electronics, and medical/pharmaceutical business information companies, a global ratings
agency, internet and marketing services, digital distribution, newspaper features distribution, and real estate
Cosmopolitan Magazine
• 1886: Started as a family magazine
• 1888: Became a socially progressive, upscale literary publication
• 1905: Acquired by Hearst
▫
Hearst preferred sensationalist reporting; became an outlet for political exposés
• Nearly liquidated in the 1950s due to its liability
• 1965: Revolutionary editor Helen Gurley Brown stepped in, transformed
the publication
• Today:
▫
▫
▫
61 print magazine editions in 35 languages in 170 countries
“A bible for fun, fearless females”
Cosmopolitan.com reaches 20 million unique visitors monthly
Theoretical Framework
• Transnational Media Management
▫ Broad, diverse, fragmented, underdeveloped theory
▫ Three common approaches (Hollifield, 2001):
 (a) the study of external conditions or rules that influence the behaviors of industries or
groups of firms, such as in the traditional industrial-organization and micro-economic
approaches
 (b) the study of how economic and environmental factors influence firm behavior within
and across countries
 (c) the study of firm and managerial practices as they do business in countries other than
home markets
▫ Strube (2010) narrows these approaches, identifies 7 general TMM
research topics:







firm-level management
internationalization process
corporate-level strategies
market entry strategies
leadership and organization
functional management
management of cross-border co-operations
Theoretical Framework
• Applicable Key Propositions (via Strube, 2010)
▫ Firm-level management
 TMNCs “need to balance localization and standardization of their
products to be successful”
▫ Corporate-level strategies
 International diversification is positively related to TMNC
performance
▫ Internationalization process
 TMNCs follow an incremental pattern: “Companies gradually increase
their commitment in international markets over time”
 Adapt the products to meet the needs, desires, and preferences of
consumers in foreign markets
Analytical Literature Review
• McLellan (2014)
▫ Corporate-level strategies/internationalization/firm-level mgmt
 Opened a corporate office in Beijing
 Acquired an international magazine business that already published
100 titles in 15 countries
 Purchased one of the world’s largest independent digital marketing
service providers to add services to advertising clients
 Developed digital media applications & digital editions of hard copy
publications
 Entered into a joint-venture partnership with Mark Burnett
Productions
 50% ownership of the firm
 5o% ownership of all future non-fiction entertainment productions
distributed across multiple platforms
Analytical Literature Review
• Galarneau (2009)
▫ Hearst Corporation’s digital strategy
 Initially delegated Internet operations to outside entity;
once that outside entity was bought by a competitor,
Hearst scrambled to build a variety of websites in a
matter of just a couple of years
 Built the sites including multiplatform applications of
video and games
 Used to web to drive subscription sales
 Were able to be more aggressive in partnership and
acquisition strategies
 Outsourced non-core digital operations
Analytical Literature Review
• Rosenthal (2009)
▫ Corporate-level strategies / internationalization
 Prior to 1989, Hearst published <20 int’l editions, all
under licensing agreements
 George Green & Hearst Magazines International (HMI)
 Local partnerships & joint ventures
 Centralized HMI staff to guide (not dictate to) global editors
and art directors
 HMI became largest U.S. publisher of magazines worldwide;
joint revenue $150M+ by 2008
 200+ int’l editions of Hearst titles; Cosmo most successful
Analytical Literature Review
• Hunt (2012)
▫ Branding/Image of Cosmopolitan Magazine
 Helen Gurley Brown established, constructed, and reconstructed the
Westernized feminist ideology of the “Cosmo Girl” over 32 years as the
domestic & international editor
 Separated from other women’s magazines of the 1960s because it
provided an interpretation of the female gender role from a sexualized
perspective
 Women can have it all—love, sex, and power
 Brown’s hand-on management style and longevity created a consistency in
style that influenced readers to consider the advice and articles contained
within the magazine as expert counsel.
 Courted advertisers through activities now considered to be unethical
 Advocated products in the magazine in exchange for personal favors
▫ Editor’s column
▫ Created stories and quotes that placed certain organizations in a positive light
 Remained editor of the 59 international editions of Cosmopolitan
Magazine until her death in 2012
Analytical Literature Review
• Machin & van Leeuwen (2003; 2004)
▫ Analyzed 44 int’l editions of Cosmo to investigate how
female identity is affected by Western culture
▫ Westernization through localization
 Localized editorial teams tailor their editions to reflect values,
narratives, and culture of their region
 Photos pulled from common repository or can be locally
produced
 All share attributes of glamour and brightness, sanitized fantasy
 “Hot tips” problem/solution columns presented “practical”
solutions to “common” problems; universal stance rather than
local
▫ Assert that glocalization is a deliberate, strategic
embedding of Western ideology in foreign markets
Analytical Literature Review
• Nelson & Paek (2007)
▫ Content analysis of seven int’l Cosmo editions
 USA (1886/1965), France (1973), Brazil (1974), India (1996), Thailand (1997), China
(1998), South Korea (2000)
 Examined influence of three factors on ad execution in Cosmo
 Degree of standardization vs. localization of models and language
 Extent to which brand’s reach influenced standardization
 Extent to which the ad’s product category influenced
standardization
 More multinational rather than domestic product ads ran everywhere
but India and adopted more globalized styles
 Brazil & France: ads were more localized in language & model choice
– to protect their unique cultural identities
 China: localized language to protect traditional cultural values
Analytical Literature Review
• Li (2008)
▫ Development of the magazine industry in China





Joint ventures
Overall cooperations
Co-investments
Copyright licensing
Advertising agency service agreements
▫ In 1998, China’s General Administration of Press
& Publication gave permission to IDG & Hearst to
form a copyright cooperation and establish Cosmo
China
Analytical Literature Review
• Zhang (2013)
▫ Studied Chinese consumer behavior and attitudes
▫ AAD model – attitude toward an advertisement
▫ Structural/cultural
 Foreign appeals in advertising are directed by global
cosmopolitanism; status goods determine prestige
▫ Action/motivation
 Media consumption choices based on the content’s
ability to provide or enhance knowledge of the
English language or info about product origin
Analytical Literature Review
• Toland Frith, Cheng, & Shaw (2004)
▫ Studied correlation between ads exported by
TMNCs in int’l versions and domestic ads in China
▫ Findings:
 Foreign media publications have lower circulations
rate than domestics
 Western models used in both foreign & domestic
 Asian publications use Western models for overtly
sexual or powerful messages and Asian models to
represent innocence and domesticity
Conclusions
• TMM principles
▫
▫
▫
HMI attempts to balance localization & standardization to maximize success
HMI seeks to put titles in as many countries as possible
HMI follows a pattern in committing to int’l markets over time; adapting where necessary
• Hearst Magazines International intentionally and strategically attempts to instill
Westernized ideologies in foreign markets
▫
▫
▫
Many foreign markets resist these overt messages where possible or use only Western models
to send these types of messages
Foreign editions of core media magazines shape their local content around Westernized
imagery and advertising
Some international marketplaces embrace Western ideologies as a way to generate national
wealth through transnational media investment
• Though Cosmo editions exist throughout the world, literature relatively limited in
international reach
▫
▫
Asian markets, namely China, dominate the research
Limited scope is not surprising considering that many scholars believe Asia will be the next
core media system
• Definitive conclusions about how Hearst impacts int’l cultures and vice versa are
limited, more comparative research and different geographical focuses are required
References
Bajc, V. (2013). The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine. Enterprise & Society, 14(2), 414-417.
doi:10.1093/es/kht009
Galarneau, J. (2009). Digital continues upward ascent in the American consumer magazine industry. Publishing
Research Quarterly, 25(2), 89-93. doi:10.1007/s12109-009-9105-3
Gershon, R. A., & Kanayama, T. (2002). The Sony Corporation: A case study in transnational media management.
JMM: The International Journal On Media Management, 4(2), 105-117.
Hearst Corporation. (n.d.) About us. Hearst.com. Retrieved September 2014 from www.hearst.com/about
Hollifield, C. (2001). Crossing borders: Media management research in a transnational market environment. Journal
Of Media Economics, 14(3), 133-146.
Hunt, P. D. (2012). Editing desire, working girl wisdom, and cupcakeable goodness: Helen Gurley Brown and the
triumph of Cosmopolitan. Journalism History, 38(3), 130-141.
Landers, J. (2010). The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri
Press.
Li, P. (2008). International cooperation and globalization of the magazine industry in China. Publishing Research
Quarterly, 24(1), 59-63. doi:10.1007/s12109-008-9048-0
References
Machin, D., & van Leeuwen, T. (2003). Global schemas and local discourses in Cosmopolitan. Journal Of
Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 493-512. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2003.00239.x
Machin, D., & van Leeuwen, T. (2004). Global media: Generic homogeneity and discursive diversity. Continuum:
Journal Of Media & Cultural Studies, 18(1), 99-120.
McLellan, M. (2014). The Hearst Corporation. Hoover’s Company Records, Ha-Hl. Austin: Dun and Bradstreet.
Nelson, M. R., & Paek, H. J. (2007). A content analysis of advertising in a global magazine across seven countries.
International Marketing Review, 24(1), 64-86. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02651330710727196
Rosenthal, J. (2009, April). Can you say ‘Cosmo’ in Russian? Yale Insights. Retrieved from http://insights.som.
yale.edu/insights/can-you-say-cosmo-russian
Strube, M. (2010). Development of transnational media management research from 1974-2009: A propositional
inventory. JMM: The International Journal On Media Management, 12(3/4), 115-140.
doi:10.1080/14241277.2010.531335
Toland Frith, K., Cheng, H., & Shaw, P. (2004). Race and beauty: A comparison of Asian and Western models in
women's magazine advertisements. Sex Roles, 50(1-2), 53-61. doi: 10.1023/B:SERS.0000011072.84489.e2
Zhang, Y. (2013, July 23). Multinational companies' dependence on China grows. China Daily, (US ed). New York:
China Daily.