Fast Company (magazine)

Fast Company

October 2009 cover of Fast Company
Editor	Robert Safian
Categories	Business magazine
Frequency	10 times per year
Publisher	Fast Company, Inc
Total circulation (June 2012)	757,858
First issue	November 1995
Company	Mansueto Ventures
Country	USA
Language	English
Website	http://www.fastcompany.com
ISSN	1085-9241

Fast Company is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes 10 print issues per year. Robert Safian has been the editor-in-chief since 2007, having previously worked at Fortune, Time, and Money. Fast Company is owned by Mansueto Ventures and is headquartered in New York, New York.

History

Fast Company was launched in November 1995 by Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, two former Harvard Business Review editors, and publisher Mortimer Zuckerman.

The publication's early competitors included Red Herring, Business 2.0 and the The Industry Standard.

In 1997, Fast Company created an online social network, the "Company of Friends" which spawned a number of groups that began meeting in person. At one point the Company of Friends had over 40,000 members in 120 cities, although by 2003 that number had declined to 8,000.

In 2000, Zuckerman sold Fast Company to Gruner + Jahr, majority owned by media giant Bertelsmann, for $350 million. At the time this was the second largest amount for any US magazine in history. Webber and Taylor left the magazine, and John A. Byrne, previously with Newsweek, was brought in as the new editor. Although the magazine was not specifically about Internet commerce, readership declined sharply following the collapse of the dot-com bubble. By 2003 newsstand sales had declined by half, and advertising pages were one-third the 2000 numbers.

In 2005, Gruner + Jahr sold the magazine, as well as Inc. magazine, to Joe Mansueto's company Mansueto Ventures for $35 million.

Fast Company was named by the American Society of Magazine Editors as the magazine of the year in 2014.

Current activity

Franchises

Fast Company currently operates a number of franchises such as "Most Innovative Companies", and "Most Creative People". For their Most Innovative Companies feature, Fast Company assesses thousands of businesses to create a list of 50 companies it considers the most creative. The Most Creative People in Business is a list of 100 people from different industries.

Online

FastCompany.com operates as a network of sites. It comprises three sites: Co.Design, Co.Exist, and Co.Create. Co.Design covers innovation and design. Co.Exist covers environmental and social issues. Co.Create covers creativity, marketing, and culture. Fast Company also previously operated a fourth site called Co.Labs, which was shut down in early 2015.

External links

• Fast Company website
• Co.Design
• Co.Exist
• Co.Create
• Co.Labs
• 30 Second MBA

• About Us | Fast Company | Co.Design | Co.Exist | Co.Create. Fast Company (October 25, 2011). Retrieved April 10, 2012.
• Gruner + Jahr sells 2 U.S. magazines The New York Times. June 21, 2005.
• Fast Company. Retrieved on May 29, 2012.