By Stacey Morris
Staff Writer
Published
in The Post-Star newspaper 3/26/00
NEW YORK CITY -- It's an early weekday afternoon at the offices of Cosmopolitan magazine. Just off the elevator in the magazine's foyer, racks of clothing hang waiting for photo shoots.
The goods on the slender steel bars look like remnants from a supermodel's shopping trip: rhinestone-studded pink mini-skirts, turquoise spaghetti-strap halter tops, dainty Capri pants that look as if they've shrunk in the wash.
If a lull seems to be hanging in the air, it's because the magazine's nucleus is on lunch break. But it won't be long before the silver elevator doors on the eighth floor part and Kate White bursts out like a bullet.
In her wake, the mini-skirts fight to maintain their flimsy grip on the racks. That's because Kate White doesn't walk. She charges. The overstuffed briefcase she lugs on one arm doesn't slow the speed at which she cuts a swath to her office.
And it's probably a good thing White hasn't opted for the pace chosen by most mortals. She is editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and her days are rather ... full.
For more than 35 years, Cosmopolitan has been stopping women (and men) in their tracks at newsstands with luscious cover models and the most titillating of headlines outside of the adult magazine realm.
From a few recent issues: "How to Touch a Naked Man," "The Gyno Crisis Every WomanDreads," and "Be The Girl Every Guy Wants: Seven Tiny Tricks That Make Men Melt."
For decades, Cosmopolitan has been one of the most successful women's magazines, regularly elbowing competition such as Vogue, Glamour and Mademoiselle out of the top sales spot.
It adds up to a jam-packed work day of phoning, memos, meetings and photo approvals as White bustles around Cosmo's white and gray offices with a "haven't got-a-moment-to-spare" fervor. She's at the helm and it's up to her to see to it that the magazine tops itself each month, and keeps selling two million issues at newsstands.
Today's scenario is light years away from White's first experience with magazines. Her start toward the top of the publishing heap happened while attending St. Mary's Academy in Glens Falls, where the young student spent her free time writing, illustrating and publishing her very own magazine, "For Freshman Only." To entice readers, the budding publishing dynamo taped red lollipops to the pages to look like stop signs.
Coffee break
On
a recent Monday afternoon, White prepared to settle into the second half of
her day at Cosmo with a strong cup of coffee lightened with a bit of skim
milk.
White's corner office is bathed in apricot tones and offers a view up Broadway to Columbus Circle (a perfect vantage-point she says, for viewing city parades).
Behind her oak desk were numerous family photographs and a laptop computer that was heralding the arrival of new e-mail. White bypassed the seat behind her desk and pulled out an upholstered chair from her office's glass-topped dining table to sit down for a chat.
Her head snapped back with laughter at the mention of her high school publication.
"I remember making that ... what an original title, huh?
When the name of her famous predecessor, Helen Gurley Brown, was mentioned, White hopped up to fetch a packet of snapshots of a party she gave at her Upper East Side townhouse to honor Brown and celebrate the release of her new book.
The photos show a beaming White mingling with Brown and Walter Cronkhite.
"Helen is so much fun," she said, gazing at a snapshot of Brown.
Number one
It
was 2:30 p.m. and White wasn't halfway through a day that began at 6 a.m.
with work on her novel. White flashed a grimace as she explained the routine:
"I have to force, FORCE myself out of bed at that hour -- especially
when I'd rather stay in bed and cuddle with Brad."
Brad is her husband of nearly 15 years, Brad Holbrook, who is known locally as the 6 p.m. news anchor with Liz Bishop on WRGB Channel 6 out of Albany.
After the writing, it's time to get breakfast for son Hunter (sixth grade) and daughter Hayley (fourth grade) before a chauffeured car drops the kids at school and her at the office. Scheduled arrival time at Cosmo: 8:30 a.m.
"Thank God for the car service that goes with the job," she gasped. "It makes it so much easier to get around the city."
White makes it a rule to take no appointments before 10 a.m. so she can plow through the paperwork that awaits her every morning.
"A lot of my day is spent reading copy," she said. "But there's the visual part too and I'm running down to the art department."
If there's a downside to being at the top of her field, it's the long hours.
"At Redbook I could leave around 5 p.m.," she said of her previous job, "But this job is so demanding I usually work till 6 p.m. then a couple more hours after the kids have gone to bed.
"Cosmo is double the size of most woman's magazines," she said, while picking up a piece of paper to scrutinize and sign. "And every article is intense."
The intensity has paid off.
"For the first time in three years," White said, "we unseated TV Guide in newsstand sales."
In writing
White
checked her watch and headed toward the main room, where a meeting with editors
awaited her. Already at the table were managing editor Abigail Greene and
design director Ann Kwong.
"Someone will want a herd of buffalo for a shoot," Greene said, explaining her job, "And I'll say, 'how much does it cost?"
Seated between Greene and Kwong, White slid on a pair of tortoise-shell reading glasses to look at some of the cartoons Kwong commissioned for a piece on becoming engaged.
"I try to use noncommittal colors," Kwong said of a cartoon's reddish brown backdrop.
"The kind of men we write about," White hooted as the table erupted in laughter.
Quickly, they move on to the May cover. White studied the positioning of a headline that fell near the lower torso of the cover girl. "Can we move that up a bit?"
"Not too far," Kwong said, pointing to the curvature of the model's hip, "That part is sexy."
They kicked around ideas for a piece on cyber revenge. "It's about people who wouldn't' have done certain things 10 years ago," White said. "But now it's easier because of cyberspace."
Then there's "What I did for money," which includes an interview with an actress who did a television ad for a herpes medication.
"Anything else for May?" White inquired, peering over her glasses. " OK, what do we have for June?"
Suddenly, senior associate art director John Lanuza produced a series of sizzling photographs of a couple in the throes of passion for a piece called "Tantric Sex."
White's crystal blue eyes sparkled. "Oh that's great! I like it!"
The talk turned slightly grim when it was announced that a young starlet who will be featured in the magazine soon refused to allow Cosmo photographers to take shots of her bedroom.
White is not happy.
"Where did she allow us to shoot?"
"We got some real pretty shots of the garden," Kwong said. "But her kitchen was too tiny."
"Then we'll just have to get things in writing from now on," White said.
It took guts
Kate
White's first brush with the publishing world started at Union College in
Schenectady, where she entered and won an essay contest sponsored by Glamour
magazine for Top 10 College Women. The magazine asked the contestants to write
about their goals. White responded by saying she had no goals.
"Sometimes, you just have to figure out what you have to do to stand out from the pack," White said. "I'm not sure why I knew to do this back then ... but you always want to intrigue with the first sentence ... people make decisions on you based on the first couple of minutes."
White began her essay by asking how anyone could have goals in the turbulent '70s. Several months later, she was enjoying a European vacation compliments of Glamour. Winning the contest also landed her a spot on the magazine's cover, and a job at the magazine.
White rose through the editorial hierarchy at Glamour and Mademoiselle, then landed the top spots at Working Woman, Child, McCall's and Redbook.
How did the bookish student from Glens Falls whose first love was a typewriter turn into one of the most influential women in magazines?
It took lots of grunt work, White said. It took long hours, innovative thinking and a word that wended its way into the title of her first advice book for career women. It took guts.
"I was never the boldest girl in class," White said. "But later on, I discovered the times that I got what I want is when I took initiative. I learned through trial and error that when you do something gutsy and nothing bad happens to you, you do it the next time."
White compiled her strategies for her first book, "Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead But Gutsy Girls Do," a manual that warns women away from doormat tendencies. It's a readable and practical book full of sound, nonthreatening tips for even the meekest of people-pleasers. And White has used every one of them.
White did win a contest that landed her on Glamour magazine's cover, and a job. But it turned out the job was in the business department, not editorial.
But White slipped suggestions and column fodder to the editorial department until she was finally asked by editors to do a story.
A personal
call
As
it turned out, White's taste for bold behavior helped her personally as well
as professionally.
"A friend of mine who was a news anchor told me to watch the news that night," White remembered. "She told me, 'Look at the guy next to me on the news. He is made for you.'"
White tuned in, and concurred.
"I was intrigued," she said. "I told my friend to give him my number but then didn't hear anything."
No call came because the bachelor in question was preoccupied with contract negotiations. So White took action. She was writing a story for Mademoiselle on some of the most eligible men in New York and decided to incorporate the newsman into the story.
"I knew he wouldn't mind being in the story, so I called him," she said, smiling. "I also knew there would be the obligatory drink."
Kate White and Brad Holbrook did more than hit it off -- they were eventually married.
Even on a busy work day, the mention of her husband's name can get White to stop in her tracks.
"I'm married to an incredibly generous guy," she smiled. "He's a can-do kind of guy. Brad handles all the bills and headaches ... the other day the vacuum broke and he fixed it before I had a chance to worry about it."
No nudging
August
will mark White's two-year anniversary with Cosmopolitan, and, in that time,
she has taken the magazine to new heights in circulation.
White said she considers her predecessor, Helen Gurley Brown, a valued colleague. "I interviewed her in this very office when I worked at another magazine," she recalled. "I admire her enormously. I think her mission for Cosmopolitan was very successful and I keep it in mind."
Brown was editor from 1965 to 1997. Brown was recruited for the job after the publication of her best-selling book, "Sex and the Single Girl," and she shaped the magazine's mission to encourage women to have as much fun as men.
But White has made a few changes since taking over. She hired a news editor to cover more beefy issues like the dangers of binge drinking. There's a new column devoted to gynecological issues ("Women love this!"), as well as "Dating Diary," where a writer shares her real life adventures with readers.
"It's so much fun working here ... I love the staff. You're always working with people who want to be the best so I spend no time nudging them. They nudge themselves."
According to White's executive assistant, Miriam R. Friedman, the admiration is mutual.
"Sometimes when people are in a powerful position, they get beside themselves, but Kate isn't like that. Everyone here has such respect for her, she's so gracious and wonderful."
"She so appreciates people who do good work for her, and who doesn't like that?" said Friedman, who followed White as her assistant when she made the move from Redbook.
Cosmo caffeine
As 5:30
p.m. approached, White prepared to charge again, this time out of the office
for a meeting with her boss.
She picked up the glossy pink April issue of Cosmopolitan and ran a hand over the cover, which featured actress Minnie Driver.
"A friend once told me if she really likes the cover of a magazine, she wants to lick it," White laughed.
"We get love mail every day from readers. They love the combination of glamour and information."
"I've had some readers tell me Cosmo is their caffeine -- it energizes them," White said. "They like us because we give them permission to go for it. We're not afraid to say something provocative about a celebrity or show a guy's butt and say, 'Hey, we like it.'"
And after months of work and planning, seeing a fresh issue of Cosmopolitan is one of White's purest thrills.
"When a brand new issue comes out," she grinned. "I can't wait to get my hands on it! If I'm coming back from the airport from a business trip, I make sure there's one waiting in the limo for me."
© 2000-2002 Stacey Morris