Industry insiders are learning to fear the fast wrath of Joanna Coles. Not only has she completely turned around Marie Claire in the hot minute that she's been there, removing all traces of neon, throwing polititicians in the well, and landing Maggie Gyllehnaal on the cover, but Coles is sticking close to the her cover line "strong, confident and sexy." Confident indeed.

We had no idea Coles went about landing that EIC job by jumping into the back of Cathy Black's limo, while en route to JFK, but we must say, that takes some serious edge.

Earlier this spring, Joanna Coles jumped into Hearst president Cathy Black's airport-bound car on just a few minutes' notice, determined to show Black before she went on vacation that she had what it took to turn around Marie Claire. Black, Coles said, "wanted someone to come in and make the magazine smarter and more sophisticated," and somewhere on the way to JFK, Coles convinced Black that she was the editor to do it.

See, folks. That's why gossip is important. If you don't know an EIC like Lesley Jane Seymore is on her way out, there's no way you can swoop in all Bond style and try to steal her job.

Stoking The Coles [Irin Carmon, WWD]

Hearst's new 46-story building, complete with its steel tower, is up and running. Expect the "Hearsties" to be on the move starting May 4.

Oh, and make sure to change your boss' Rolodex, while simultaneously noting where to send your resume (unless you're sending it to HR … we think they're still in another building). Hearst is now at 300 W. 57th Street, from their former digs at 959 Eighth Ave.

The great view of Central Park trumped any post 9/11 fears, with Cathy Black getting a prime view from her new 43rd floor suite. But the real news? Kate White, editor in chief of Cosmopolitan, has sex tipped her way the top editorial floor.

Cosmopolitan, the most profitable magazine in the empire, has the highest floor for an individual magazine, the 38th. Oprah Winfrey, whose O magazine is the second most profitable in the company behind Cosmo, will be on the 36th.

That's right Oprah, you're in New York now. And since you don't work out at RADU or sit shoulder to shoulder with David Zinczenko on the Today show every other day, you don't any special favors here.

HEARST BIGWIGS LAY CLAIM TO THEIR DREAM ADDRESS [Keith J. Kelly, New York Post]

Consumer magazines are continuing the attempt to enter the "digital space" and Hearst will not be left behind.

Since Hearst developed their online content, their mags have been on those crappy iVillage sites. The future looks a bit brighter, though, since NBC bought out iVillage — now mags like Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine can attmempt to hit the Internet pavement with a little more speed.

“More than 76 million people read our magazines each month and, with the proliferation of digital media, we want our brands and unique editorial perspectives to be available to our consumers wherever and whenever they desire,” said Cathleen P. Black, president, Hearst Magazines.

So far, the only magazines that have been able to hack it online (in our humble opinions) have been New York and Jane. And maybe Forbes. Though we think if the folks at Esquire hired a web editor, their mag's site would have the potential to stop www.suckingsomuch.

HEARST MAGAZINES CREATES DIGITAL MEDIA UNIT [Nat Ives, Ad Age]

• Cathy Black tells a joke, then hopes nobody caught it. [AdAge]

• Hachette Fillipacchi's Elle.com is ready to take on Style.com. If they succeed, we'll have a website that's at least barely worth reading. [WWD]

• The SEC promises to deliver "clear principles" for future subpoenaing of journalists. It just won't be clear on what those principles might be. [AP]

• People.com lags, Epicurious.com gains, and ELLEgirl.com and TeenVogue.com proved teenage girls are doing more than posting PG-13 photos of themselves on MySpace. [MIN]

• Maxim resigns publisher Rob Gregory for two years as the magazine hits its 100th issue. Did we mention ad sales were down this quarter? [WWD]

• Our passive-agressive relationship with blogs continues. [National Journal]

• Richard Desmond should know letting the bills slide isn't "OK." The porn-cum-gossip peddler is facing a potential lawsuit from Splash News thanks to five months of unpaid bills.

• Maybe if Gear magazine outsourced its ad sales staff a la Breathe, Bob Guccione Jr. wouldn't be stuck toiling with Discover.

• Since you long ago threw out Jack Welch's guide to Winning and will wait no longer for Steve Florio, it's time for the latest media mogul memoir. Look forward to Hearst prez Cathy Black's management tome, where we'll learn how to run the least sexy publishing house. Well, second to E.W. Scripps, anyhow.

• Where Yahoo hired Kevin Sites as a war blogger, AOL is boosting its own content business with a video-on-demand celeb journalism series promising the continued overexposure of Paris Hilton and Tom Cruise.

• With product placements becoming central to TV show plotlines, it's only a matter of time before Eva Longoria's characters starts sleeping with a Rokr phone.

• The Wall Street Journal waved goodbye to Joanne Lipman – who's taking off to head up Conde Nast's business division – complete with pretzels, wine and cheese. Extravagance is never spared.

• NYU is boosting its journalism faculty by 60 percent, adding 12 new faculty members that might have an inkling how this media business works.

• Avoiding unsolicited lesbian loving isn't what's bothering Judith Miller while she serves her prison term. Rather, it's her being kept away from the Internet. She must really miss her Jossip fix.

• Hearst head Cathy Black killed any plans for Bullet, the weekly lads title with former Maxim editor Keith Blanchard leading the pack.

• For some reason, CBS thinks there aren't enough entertainment magazines around. (Hey, we said there's room for entertainment blogs, not mags!) They're planning a new title called WATCH! set to debut in January.

• Google is pausing its library project, which scans out-of-print and copyrighted books into its searchable database, to take some time and work out its intellectual property kinks.

• Fitness freak Richard Simmons is saddling up next to Howard Stern and Martha Stewart for his own Sirius Satellite Radio show.

• Former People news director Kristen Kelch is returning to the celebrity mag world as the editor of the revamped TV Guide.

• They don't want patrons smoking in restaurants and now New York City health officials don't want you trying to digest any trans fat in restaurants either.

• Mayor Michael Bloomberg got hit with a lawsuit from four staffers at his financial firm who are claiming age discrimination.

Surely you're excited as we to watch struggling-to-be-sexy Hearst get into the land of service. Cathy Black is clicking her heels three times hoping her new weekly, Quick & Simple, will debut to the enormous fanfare she's not used to.

And what an invigorating concept for the 60-page oversized launch, which hits newsstands August 2. The mag's pages will

dole out easy recipes as well as beauty, fashion and home tips using vibrant-colored sidebars and graphics. The magazine targets mass-market, mid-30s single women and mothers. Stories in the premiere issue include two-minute hairstyles and diet-friendly fast-food menus.

No muted pastels for this title. No way, Jose, we've got "vibrant-colored" items here. And if that weren't enough to set Quick & Simple apart from, say, Real Simple, All You, First For Women, O or Martha Stewart Living, get this:

Editor Susan Toepfer, who headed up G+J USA Publisher’s Rosie before joining Hearst, pointed out another advantage. She said that by publishing weekly “we have a better shot at keeping [the information] fresh and current” than its biweekly and monthly competitors.

Ohhh, so that's how this publishing schedule thing works. Competing editors are just going to die when they hear about this new trick.