Based on one issue- WOW!

I had to pick up a prescription for my wife the other day, and while I was waiting for it to be filled, I perused the magazine rack, as I am want to do. I spied a very hefty tome, and was struck by its lack of glossiness. When I picked up the magazine, I felt in love. Here was a magazine with a great feel. Fast Company is a heavy, wonderfully textured magazine. I work in the catalog business, and we have done marketing research on paper types. My guess is that this has also happened at Fast Company.

Title

Fast Company. To me, this magazine wants to give advice on how you can optimize your performance. Similar to MacWorld - who title their sections more acutely - there are helpful suggestions and hints in almost every article. No Good Housekeeping tips, here, more how-to like Norm and Steve from This Old House Magazine (printed on a similar paper, I think) The sections (i.e SURVEY) are presented in a way that I found quite interesting. In my humble experience, surveys have been presented with a "well, Here are the results: A=12% B=80% and c=8%." I found the insight given with each answer - "A, a company where you can find the most satisfied janitorial staff..." etc. - helped me form a consensus myself, they then explained how each answer reflected what, which, in my experience, is new and welcome.

Articles

The presentation of the articles, in particular Where Do Great Ideas Come From? was fresh and invigorating. Two companies offer contrasting approaches to finding the creative in you, no matter how competent you are! Pairing these stories, both on the same topic, together with sidebars on specific exercises from each company, gives an even more comprehensive look at the subject and helps to lend credence to the advice, tips, and tools as they are presented. I only hope that they continue to find features as worthy of the double-whammy as Creative Thinking! Kudos!

I am a business novice, and yet I have no problem understanding the concepts as they are presented in this mag. I found an interview with an economist especially engaging, for his insight on the ways Accounting is out of touch with the new economy made great sense to me (and I had a difficult time staying awake for my Econ class in College. Maybe because it was at 8:00 AM?). The writers have a way of presenting ideas in a no-nonsense, easily understood language. Part of this may have to do with the tactile sense, the feeling of ease at the touch of this paper (I rant, I rave, do you get the feeling I like this paper?) and the lack of a scent, other than that of the paper. I think this helps us, in our overstimulated world, concentrate on the content of the magazine, not on the advertising.

Advertising

I really hate the excess amounts of card sputum most magazines have inside them. It seems as though the first thing I have to do with a magazine before I read it is stand over the Garbage Can, hold the thing by the binder, and shake out the pages. Then I rifle through and rip out the ones that are still connected. Finally, I can lay the mag down and enjoy a relatively pleasant reading experience. Don't even ask me about scented cards, Spawn of Satan that they are. Amazingly, with Fast Company, I found very few of these offensive cards. 5, to be exact, three of which were almost full page or full page cards themselves, which are a tad less egregious, because they tend to lie flatter. This in a magazine over 300 pages in length! Amazing. Most of the adverts themselves were full page, or were formatted to fill a full page of ads. There are very few instances of a page featuring two thirds ad, one third article, which I find very helpful when reading. (thanks wvg)

Photography

I found the photography bordered on artful fashion photography(not an insult, by any means), but never overstepped its bounds. Especially insightful was the photography accompanying the article on Play, Inc.. The first photo says it all, the second, on the next page of the spread, borders on art in its symmetry and tonality. The photos are all either oversaturated or undersaturated, each reflecting a mood followed in the storyline. Again, the choice of paper is paramount here, as the slightly matte paper soaks up the ink, and the pages quite literally drip with it. For a business mag, a very bold move.

Layout

The only thing that comes close to a buzz-kill for me, is the typography. Here again, Fast Company chooses to be bold, and huzzah for them, in laying out the articles. For the most part, they are wonderfully easy to follow from page to page, with very few advertisements sharing page space with articles. Also, each article tends to end in the same vicinity of pages where it started, which I feel is important for continuity. There are few things I detest more than reading an interesting article, getting into the meat of the story, and turning the page to find a new story starting. Many times I am deep enough into the story to search it out, but at all times I feel it is an immense bother to do so. Fast Company has made another spot-on choice in keeping articles together. The Con - if I can call it that, Is their choice of justifying headlines so that they are cropped off the page at indiscriminate intervals. This is a minor inconvenience, and I must admit that it looks cool. The artist in me thought "Neeto!" or maybe just "Neat!". But I had to temper my enthusiasm in some way, and I can see how some people would find this difficult.

Overall

Fast Company is a business magazine on Java. It has the juiced-up feel of an all night coffee shop, where you can surf the web, chat with friends, and get lost in thought-provoking articles on how business is and should be run. It feels great to my fingers. too, but I covered that. Underneath the Header, the Subhead asks this question - What are you working on? I found this simple question very much sums up the editorial direction of this magazine, and implies, I hope, "How can we be of service?"

p.s.
Fast Company is how I found out about epinions.com, one of the articles on the value of time reported on how Jeff Clow (Bonies7) "...expresses himself on Epinions, a buyers guide..." [P. 42, January:February 2000]. I guess he should really be my sponsor!!! Thanks, Jeff!

p.p.s.

In Review Details, below, I find it difficult to answer with one of the selectable answers, esp. since this is the first issue I have seen. I want to subscribe, And I will buy the magazine for all the reasons listed.