WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29 2008

Fast Company Featured in MIN

AT "FAST COMPANY," THE "DEPRESSION" CAME THREE YEARS AGO.
It was on May 24, 2005, that Fast Company went on life support after it and Inc. were the unwanted parts of Bertelsmann's Gruner + Jahr USA dissolution. (Family Circle/Fitness/Parents and the since-folded Child were acquired by Meredith Corp.) Chicago-based ceo Joe Mansueto was the white knight in spending $35 million for the magazines that June, but while the small-business-targeted Inc.'s future was assured, FC's was in doubt as its value had dropped markedly from the circa-$350 million that then-G+J USA president Dan Brewster paid Mort Zuckerman for it in December 2000.

"FAST COMPANY'S" SUCCESSFUL "REBIRTH" (continued from page 1)
Yet, Mansueto infused and enthused FC with the Mansueto Ventures move of it and Inc. to New York's 7 World Trade Center and, through MV ceo John Koten (ex-Inc. editor-in-chief), the February 2007 hire of FC editor-in-chief/managing director Bob Safian. The ex-Money managing editor (1997-2004) and Time/Fortune executive editor (2004-2007) made a quick impact with the May 2007 "discovery" of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (The Kid Who Turned Down $1 Billion had not previously given a full-length interview to the press). Other provocative cover stories followed (May 2007 says Ning co-founder/ ceo Gina Bianchini "knows the secret power behind Google, eBay, and Facebook--and isn't afraid to use it"), and the payoff is coming on the business side. Publisher Christine Osekoski, who reports to Safian, tells min that first-half-2008's +32% ad-page differential (259.16 versus 196.42) continues in July. "We're like the phoenix rising again," she says. "Bob and executive editor Will Bourne produce what I call a 'sheen of business cool,' and it is paying off with advertisers." Last week... Safian and Osekoski were fêted by Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley for FC's U.S. City of the Year designation (June), and this week Osekoski expects to announce the magazine's first "nationwide broadcast partnership."