Women from the most sparsely populated independent country on Earth are in for a treat this week, when a new Mongolian-language edition of Cosmopolitan will start appearing on shelves. As Jeremy W. Peters at Media Decoder notes, this is the 61st international iteration of the women’s magazine juggernaut; different versions of Cosmo are already being sold in countries including Croatia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, and Slovenia, as well as nations throughout Europe and South America.

A lot of people were upset when Mayor Michael Bloomberg named Cathie Black chancellor of New York City’s schools, and with fairly good reason—Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, has no experience working in the field of education. So education experts have decided to fight back the best way they know how: by trying to apply for Black’s soon-to-be vacated position at Hearst.

While it may not be totally unexpected, the story appears to have developed extremely quickly.

Hearst Corporation has announced Helen Thomas will be retiring, effective immediately.

Historically, publishers have typically outsourced the printing and distribution of magazines through giant publishing companies. As this model becomes increasingly less viable, publishers are now building the devices to carry their content. Who is the latest publisher to unveil a new gadget in hopes of saving their business model? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Skiff, brought to you by Hearst!

The “Hulu for magazines” joint venture spearheaded by John Squires officially has a name: Next Issue Media. According to Folio, the partnership has some real heavyweights behind it: Time Inc., Meredith, Hearst, Condé Nast and News Corporation. All of which represent some serious old media muscle, but will they be able to compete in the digital marketplace?

Esquire‘s innovation doesn’t end with December’s augmented reality 3-D Robert Downey Jr. In fact, that’s just the beginning, as now they’ve rolled out a completely digital version of January’s “Meaning of Life” issue. The Hearst title is one of the first to offer a paper-less version of such quality, not through the world wide web, but with an iPhone app. For $2.99 you can buy the whole January issue in a format designed optimally for your Apple brand mobile smartphone.

There have been whispers in the publishing world for months now about a group solution to the print problem, in which all of the big dogs — including Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith and Time Inc. — would come together to offer competitive marketplace solutions to widespread magazine woes. Today, they announced their big plans, including a “digital storefront” and much more.

Some of the biggest rivals in magazine publishing are close to a deal that would combine their forces in an effort to resuscitate a dying print industry. Titans of the media world — including Condé Nast, Heart and Time Inc. — are working to form an alliance that would recreate magazines for a digital age, in a plan that includes new mobile iterations sold in an iTunes-like store, as well as print magazines, according a report in The Observer.

A Bay Area website revealed today an internal Time Inc. document outlining plans to start competing with Amazon’s Kindle and other electronic readers before the end of the year. Buried in the piece however is perhaps a more stunnign revelation – Time Inc. execs appear to have discussed the new venture with rival magazine publishers, including Conde Nast, Meredith, and Hearst. Can magazine publisher save themselves via an alliance?

Ever since Rupert Murdoch announced that he was going to institute a pay-for-content policy on everything he publishes the media world has been much-a-chatter over whether Rupe publishes anything other than the Wall St. Journal that people would actually be willing to pay for. Solution? Make everyone get on board your paid content train…someone must have something that’s worth shelling out for!

Elle has recently been cited in the trades as a singular bright spot in an otherwise blighted sector – most recently getting attention for selling more ad pages than Conde Nast rival Vogue. So if rumors are true, why would Hachette want to sell off a profitable magazine that is on its way up?