Times have changed.

Hearst now has one of the most successful publishing operations in China with a half dozen magazines, and a circulation at the flagship Cosmopolitan of 500,000 - a huge number for a foreign publication, particularly one known for its saucy articles on breast enhancement and Ten Tricks to Please Your Man.

'When I came in 1991 people were wearing black and riding bicycles. Now they are driving Mercedes and wearing fancy clothes,' he said during a visit to Beijing.

That rapid rise in consumer spending is grist for Hearst's stable of women's, men's and home magazines. Mr Green was in Beijing to receive the Marco Polo Award, given to foreign business leaders who play a significant role in China's economic development.

Other winners have included former US president George Bush; Alex Trotman, chief executive of Ford; and David Komansky, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch. Mr Green's contribution was to bring the tricks of magazine publishing to his Chinese partners.

Hearst is a 20 per cent owner in a magazine joint venture called Trends Publishing. The other investors are the Ministry of Tourism (50 per cent), American trade publisher IDG (20 per cent) and employees (10 per cent).

Trends now publishes a half dozen Hearst titles in China, consisting of Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen, all producing profit margins above what the magazines earn in the United States.

In Hong Kong, Hearst has a joint venture with SCMP Group, the parent company of the South China Morning Post, to publish Cosmo and other magazines. China has risen to become Hearst's fourth-largest international market, after the UK, Russia and Australia.

On a visit to Japan in 1997, Mr Green ran into an old friend, IDG founder Pat McGovern. Mr McGovern, whose company had published in China since 1980, said: 'Why don't you do something with us?'

Six months later they had concluded the structure for the investment in Trends, which was then publishing a range of small fashion and women's magazines.

Soon after, they launched Cosmopolitan. Annual ad pages in Cosmo climbed steadily from 395 in 1998 to 623 the next year, reaching 1,720 last year. In the first quarter of this year, ad pages were up 30 per cent to 404, putting the magazine on track for another healthy rise in business.

The May edition of Cosmo has 358 pages - it's as thick as a phone book. (Competitor Elle, from Hachette-Filapacchi, has 350 pages.)

To boost profits, the company is considering establishing its own distribution network, with trucks, warehouses and back-office billing.

Hearst is already eyeing the 'lad mag' market - men's magazines for readers who like to buy computers, work out in the gym and ogle scantily clad girls. The joint venture expects to get the licence in about six months for the Hearst magazine called FHM.

But how will magazines that rely on breasts be received in the mainland's buttoned-down society? Mr Green said Hearst always lets local publishers decide what to print.

'It's going to be an interpretation and clearly will not be as raw as western titles,' he said.