Joanna Coles on the world of publishing, digital love, and inspiring a TV hit

As the KindredCast team takes a break for summer vacation, we’re looking back at some of our favorite interviews over the past two years. Today, we’re revisiting Episode 23, featuring author and publishing executive Joanna Coles.

Joanna was the first person to hold the position of Chief Content Officer at Hearst Magazines, one of the most successful companies in publishing. Before that, she was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire. It’s no wonder she went on to inspire one of the boldest characters on television. Here’s what we learned:

1. Joanna is the inspiration for Melora Hardin’s character in The Bold Type.

As ABC Family transitioned into the more daring Freeform, the network started to pick up more shows targeted at young women, often edgy and daring fare. One of their most successful programs is The Bold Type, centered on three young women trying to make their way in the world of glossy magazines, under the careful eye of a sharp editor.

That sharp editor, portrayed by Melora Hardin, was inspired by Joanna’s life at Cosmo. As an executive producer on the show, Joanna is proud to push for better representation of working women on television. “[Hardin’s character] is a role model boss,” Joanna said. “She can be annoying, she can make mistakes, she can be all sorts of things, but essentially, she feels real, and the point of her is, she’s not the trope or the cliché bitch boss. She’s actually very supportive of her younger staff, which is certainly what I tried to be. But more importantly, it was actually my experience working in both Fleet Street and then coming to work in the media world in New York. I had tremendous help from women who really had to battle and were desperate to bring women up, so this idea that women don’t reach down and help other women was not my experience, and I didn’t want that reflected on television. I wanted a really strong role model.”

2. Starting a career in publishing required tenacity above all.

There’s a reason why bold is the word that comes to mind when describing Joanna Coles. She started her career on Fleet Street, known as the heart of print journalism in London. “You would walk out of the offices of the Daily Telegraph and on your left was St. Paul’s,” Joanna said. “So you had God on your left and then you had the High Courts of London on your right, so you were sandwiched somewhere between God and the law, and there was journalism in the middle of it.” And somewhere between God and the law, Joanna kicked her way to the top. Literally.

Early in her career, Joanna once kicked open a toilet door to talk to a woman who had just been released from the High Court. “I was the only female reporter, and of course she went to the station to go home and what did she do?” Joanna said. “She did what everybody does when they go to the station. She went to the bathroom. And I leapt over … I managed to vault over the thing to get into the bathroom, kicked open the door.” While Joanna thinks it wasn’t worth the dramatic entrance, the story encapsulates the boldness that continues to follow.

3. Joanna wants to help you find a real relationship in the digital world.

Last year, Joanna broke important ground in the wildest west of all: online dating. She penned Love Rules: How to Find a Real Relationship in a Digital World to provide some “love hacks” to those navigating the deluge of dating apps available. “It’s easy to find a date,” Joanna said. “It’s never been easier to go on a date, and yet it seems really hard to find love. There is an epidemic of loneliness.”

Love Rules can be broken down into fifteen rules for finding a relationship that brings true fulfillment. And while you’ll have to read the book to find them all out, she did share a little insight: you have to go face-to-face every now and then. “Well, I’m energized by what’s going on right now, and I think that we just don’t want to forget that, actually, real relationships, actual conversations, having dinner with friends is really important, and there is no digital substitute for that,” Joanna said. “I mean, it’s fantastic to have video chats with your friends when they’re not in the room with you. I love all that, but there is no substitute for sitting down with someone at the end of the day.”

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To listen to our interview with Joanna, check out this special episode KindredCast, embedded below, and available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.