Fast Company seeks the fast lane - business magazine

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Oct 15, 1993 by Lori Marden

Technology-driven and young in attitude, new leadership is moving into the business world.

"Let's see--well, if today is Monday, then Bill must be the publisher," says Alan Webber, editor (or publisher) of Fast Company, a magazine that launched with a pilot issue this month.

That relaxed approach reflects the attitude of this self-described new breed of business magazine, which is scheduled to start up in January on a bimonthly basis. Co-founded by Webber and William Taylor, former players on the Harvard Business Review team, Fast Company, published by Fast Company, Inc., is not just about the nine-to-five business scene; it takes a holistic approach to the businessperson, embracing the culture, politics and attitudes that shape the quality of executives' lives. That, coupled with the notion of a new business generation and an emphasis on evolving management strategies, is what the publishers view as the title's departure from the focus of existing business magazines. Fast Company is "first, about ideas, not news; second, affiliations as well as information; and third, it is above all, good prose," says Taylor.

Fast Company targets senior managers who own a share of the responsibility for making their companies competitive. They're young in attitude--though not necessarily in age--with an understanding of business concepts in today's technology-driven economy. Psychographically they're risk-takers and innovators, and they reflect an evolving generational change in business that the team calls "the new economy."

Roger Black, who has worked with Rolling Stone, Esquire and Newsweek, among others, designed the new title; editorial is written by business experts. Each issue will provide a "big idea," an in-depth study of areas such as marketing, strategy or manufacturing, as well as company profiles and interviews with those who are positioning ideas for the new economy.

Initial circulation is 35,000 nonpaid. In September, the company conducted a mailing to attract paid subscribers. The cover price is $5. The ad rate for a black-and-white page is $2,500. Address: 1100 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138. Telephone: 617-497-1361.