Media mogul Black, president of Hearst Magazines (Cosmopolitan
, Esquire
, Harper's Bazaar
and O
), delivers a memoir masquerading as a guide to career and life. Enthusiastic and hard-working, Black was one of the first women to take a major role in American magazine and newspaper publishing. She came to Hearst by way of New York
magazine, where she was the first woman publisher of a weekly consumer magazine, and USA Today
, which she helped build from a small upstart into one of the country's most widely read daily papers. Though she positions herself as a role model for professional women, her advice is slim and scattershot. The book mainly consists of anecdotes from her working life and fawning praise for Al Neuharth, retired chairman and CEO of newspaper publisher Gannett Co. and her unofficial mentor. It's an interesting portrait of a groundbreaking career, but Black backs up her own story with only a note or two of advice, waiting until nearly the end of the book to tackle what she originally claims is her main point: the “360 Life,” or the difficulty of balancing work with personal life. While the author's life is an interesting one, readers looking for tips will do better with a more pointed book. (Oct.)
