Editor Robert Safian Frequency 10 times per year Total circulation
(June 2012) 757,858 | Categories Business magazine Publisher Fast Company, Inc First issue November 1995 | |
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.
Contents
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 BusinessWeek, 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.
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 innovative. 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 design and innovation. 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.