She may have edited Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, but Tina Brown these days is thanking her lucky stars she quit atoms for bits. The publisher and wife of ex Sunday Times editor Harold Evans, who we’re still counting as British despite her rise to the top of New York’s media society, this month launched her own web title The Daily Beast with IAC.

Hosting a Q&A with Hearst president Cathie Black at our EconWomen conference in New York, Brown said: “I’d hate right now to be in the magazine world. It’s a really tough time to be a magazine editor ... the long-form journalism is the only thing that makes any sense because you can’t compete (on pace).

“If you’re doing a magazine now (on a cycle of four to six weeks), you’ve missed the financial meltdown, the rise of Sarah Palin - it would put me in hospital. The only thing you could do is be so deep in your approach to content. Many more magazines probably will wind up going to the wall.” Glossy magazines with strong visual impact will survive, others will go online, Brown said.