By Tricia Benn
There are few brands that can truly claim to be part of the fabric of everyday life. For more than a century, Good Housekeeping has been one of them. Founded in 1885, the publication has become synonymous with trust, quality, and consumer advocacy. Its iconic Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval has guided generations of households, while its pages have featured contributions from literary legends like Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh.
Today, that legacy is being stewarded by an extraordinary leader: Jane Francisco, Editor-in-Chief of Good Housekeeping and Editorial Director at Hearst Lifestyle Group. In addition to Good Housekeeping, Jane oversees several powerhouse titles — including Women’s Day, Prevention, and Country Living — collectively reaching tens of millions of readers across platforms.
When Jane joined me on C-Suite Success, what struck me most wasn’t just the scale of the brands she leads. It was the mindset she brings to them: entrepreneurial, curious, and deeply committed to evolution.
Because when you’re responsible for a brand that’s more than 130 years old, standing still is simply not an option.
Success Isn’t Static — It Evolves
One of my favorite questions to ask leaders is when they first recognized success in their lives. Jane’s answer revealed something many executives discover over time: success is rarely a fixed destination.
Early in her career, Jane wasn’t climbing a corporate ladder. She was building something from scratch.
She launched a magazine rooted in her passions for design, literature, and culture — an entrepreneurial leap that required creativity, grit, and plenty of learning along the way. She admits that financial success wasn’t immediate. In fact, at times it was elusive. But what she gained instead was something far more valuable.
She learned how businesses function. She learned how to tell stories that resonate. And perhaps most importantly, she learned the power of visibility and marketing — skills she hadn’t even realized she needed when she started.
“I didn’t even know what a press release was,” she told me with a smile.
Like many entrepreneurs, Jane discovered that the lessons from each venture compounded. Every project, every experiment, every risk built toward something bigger. Eventually, those experiences opened the door to leadership roles inside established organizations.
And when that first paycheck from a larger company arrived, it felt like validation. But over time, her definition of success continued to evolve.
Early on, success often meant recognition from industry leaders. Now, as someone others look to for guidance, Jane sees things differently.
“Success really has to come from inside you,” she explained.
For her today, success means working with people she enjoys, feeling passion for the work, and continuing to innovate—even when the brand she’s guiding has been around for more than a century.
Leading a 138-Year-Old Brand in a Disruptive World
One of the fascinating elements of Jane’s leadership journey is that she entered the editorial world with an entrepreneurial background.
That’s not typical.
Traditionally, editorial roles and business operations were separated by clear lines. Editorial teams focused on storytelling while business teams focused on revenue. But the modern media landscape doesn’t allow that kind of separation anymore.
Jane understands that the future of media—and any business, for that matter—depends on understanding how all the pieces fit together.
Her entrepreneurial instincts help her see the entire ecosystem: audience engagement, partnerships, revenue models, and brand evolution.
And the numbers speak for themselves.
Despite being one of the most mature brands in media, Good Housekeeping continues to grow. In fact, the brand recently experienced one of its best financial years in two decades—a remarkable achievement for a publication founded in the 19th century.
Maintaining relevance for a brand with such deep roots requires constant adaptation.
Jane describes it as building a “change muscle.”
It’s a concept she found reinforced in a conversation with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, whose philosophy centers on continually refreshing perspectives and letting go of outdated approaches.
For Jane, that means always anticipating the next shift in audience behavior, technology, and storytelling.
In other words: disruption is part of the job.
The Hard Lessons That Shape Great Leaders
Every successful leader has moments that redefine how they approach business. For Jane, one of the most difficult came during the financial crisis of 2008.
At the time, she had launched a new magazine and spent nearly five years building a passionate team around it. They loved the work. They loved the mission. And Jane had personally hired every member of the team.
But when economic pressures forced the company to make difficult decisions, that publication was the one that had to close. It was devastating. Yet the experience delivered one of the most important leadership lessons of her career: don’t be precious with your business—protect it.
Looking back, Jane realized there were opportunities to make adjustments earlier—cost reductions or strategic shifts that might have kept the publication alive.
That lesson has stayed with her ever since.
Sometimes leadership means investing boldly and building aggressively. Other times it means recalibrating, trimming back, and making difficult choices in order to preserve the long-term vision.
The key is recognizing the difference.
The Power of Storytelling—Then and Now
As Jane looks toward the future, what excites her most isn’t just the performance of the brand she leads.
It’s the opportunity to keep shaping its story.
Within the newly structured sales organization at Hearst, Jane and her team have been crafting the narrative that hundreds of sales professionals will use to represent Good Housekeeping in the marketplace.
And that process—telling the story of a brand that has existed for more than a century—is energizing.
Because great brands endure not simply because of their history, but because leaders continually reinterpret their relevance for new generations.
Jane Francisco understands that better than most.
She’s not just preserving a legacy. She’s actively reinventing it—ensuring that one of the most trusted brands in publishing continues to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
And if there’s one thing her journey makes clear, it’s this: True success isn’t about maintaining the status quo.
It’s about having the courage to evolve. Do you have the courage to evolve? That’s the question I’ll leave you with today. Watch the full interview on C-Suite TV.
