Every two years, editors from the 58 foreign editions of Cosmopolitan magazine descend on Hearst Corporation's Manhattan headquarters for a global summit. And each time, George Green notices that the Cosmo girls from around the world seem to be growing ever more alike.

"If you walk down the street here on Eighth Avenue or in Beijing or Singapore, women look the same. They're wearing the same jeans, they're listening to the same music," says Mr Green, chief executive of Hearst Magazines International. "They don't want to be American but they want to be more like their American sister than ever before."