Posted 1:42 PM by Blah blah

Romance, in Cosmo's World, Is Translated in Many Ways (NY Times):
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Hemmed in by soaring costs and declining readership domestically, American publishers like Hearst are feeling a growing urgency to tap into the aspirations of women all over the world to conquer unanticipated markets. With a formula almost as closely guarded as Coca-Cola's — there is a secret 50-page instruction manual — Cosmopolitan, Hearst's naughty girlfriend of a magazine, has increased its circulation to 8.2 million worldwide, even extending its brand to places where readers have to hide the magazine from their husbands.

After adding nine editions in the last two years, Cosmo will soon publish in 50 countries, including the recently opened Latvian edition and a Kazakhstan Cosmo that makes its debut in September....

The Cosmo mantra of "Fun, Fearless Female" requires a bit of a makeover to resonate with other far-flung audiences. In India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, there are no Cosmo articles about sexual positions. The mammoth Chinese version never mentions sex because it is forbidden, said the editor, Vera Xu. Instead, articles about uplifting cleavage are replaced by uplifting stories about youthful dedication, although there is still plenty of advice on how to look your best. Sex also gets less attention in the Swedish version, but for precisely the opposite reason: In a wide-open culture, the word has little of the sizzle that it has here.

In France, the editor, Anne Chabrol, also confronts a readership very comfortable — even bored, she says — with sexual matters. She has responded by running a contest asking in French "Does he cheat on you?" and the winner is awarded the services of a private detective to find out for sure.

Honoring local idiosyncrasy is critical, said Mr. Green and the editors. Ms. Totterman, the Finnish editor, said putting Britney Spears on the local cover of the "Fun, Fearless Female" issue, a special issue all the magazines publish, would not work in her market. It has to be someone Finnish, someone local readers can identify with. Similarly, the Hong Kong edition uses mostly Asian faces with pictures of local celebrities. But in China, there is still a hunger for Western images. "We are a developing country and just opening up to the West, so people are very interested in seeing what is going on in other places," Ms. Xu said.

Still, certain standards must be observed. The woman on the Cosmo cover — it is always a woman — should have large hair, remarkable features and not too much clothing.

"Hearst is a great partner, as long as you don't put a guy on the cover," said Ellen Verbeek, co-editor of Russian Cosmo along with Elena Myasnikova. Ms. Verbeek said that Cosmo fills a need for the young Russian woman. (Before Cosmo arrived in 1994, young Russian women had to choose generally between magazine titles that Hearst officials roughly translate as Factory Woman and Farming Woman.)...

The magazine is not welcome everywhere. Mr. Green said some conservative markets will remain unconquered. In 1984, the government of Singapore banned versions of the magazine that had been produced elsewhere. (It has subsequently authorized local production of Harper's Bazaar, a Hearst fashion magazine, but not Cosmo.)
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You Singaporeans know about TalkingCock, the satirical humor site, right? Reminds me of The Onion. That's what Singapore needs---more humor and rebelliousness. Less conformity. You guys know about my old Singapore Fun Box page?