Roehm profile in Fast Company shows male/female bias

Jim Edwards, the former managing editor of Adweek, finds little to like in the Fast Company profile of Julie Roehm, the former head of advertising at Wal-Mart now struggling to find a job. Edwards writes, “Don’t get me wrong. I read the story right through to the end. There’s something eminently readable about the Roehm […]

Other business magazines will fail

Jon Friedman, the media columnist at Marketwatch, predicts that the closing of business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio on Monday won’t be the last of the biz glossies to shutter. Friedman writes, “The business model no longer can be sustained in a digital age. In a bear market where people prefer to sit on the sidelines, […]

Fast Company, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg win Overseas awards

Business magazines Fast Company and BusinessWeek, along with news service Bloomberg News, are among the winners in the annual Overseas Press Club Awards. Richard Behar of Fast Company won the best magazine reporting from abroad award for his story about China’s increasing economic influence in Africa. The judges state, “Behar spent months on the road in Mozambique, […]

Fast Company, Inc. CEO out of a job?

Owen Thomas of Valleywag reports that John Koten, the CEO of the parent company that oversees business magazines Fast Company and Inc., may be leaving the company. Thomas reports, “When asked, Koten said he ‘planned on appearing for jury duty tomorrow.’ To avoid a leak, we hear managers are calling employees with the news that […]

Safian zigs with Fast Company while others zag

Barbara Lippert of Adweek profiles Fast Company editor Robert Safian, whom the magazine anoints as a hot editor to watch in 2009. Lippert writes, “With its focus on technology, innovation, sustainability and design, the magazine attracts ‘a constituency of business person who does not define himself by paycheck,’ Safian says. ‘The thinking is more, ‘I […]

Biz magazines nominated for National Magazine Awards

Wired, Fast Company and BusinessWeek received multiple nominations for the annual National Magazine Awards, according to an announcement Wednesday. The Economist was also named a finalist in the general excellence category. Wired received four nominations, in the general excellence category, in the interactive online category, in the magazine section category and in the design category. […]

Business, labor stories among Polk winners

Stories about business and labor were among the winners of the George Polk Awards for 2008 announced on Monday. Robert McFadden of the New York Times writes, “The award for labor reporting went to Paul Pringle of The Los Angeles Times for disclosing that the Los Angeles chapter of the Service Employees International Union, representing […]

Business magazines outperformed industry in 2008

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE The 16 business magazines currently tracked by Publishers Information Bureau lost less in ad revenue and ad pages than the overall industry, according to data released Tuesday that was analyzed by Talking Biz News. The business publications reported a 2.8 percent decrease in ad revenue in 2008, down to $1.7 billion, […]

No slowing down at Fast Company

James Erik Abels of Forbes interviews John Koten, the CEO of Mansueto Ventures, the parent of Fast Company and Inc. magazines, about why the magazines have continued to show strong circulation and ad sales growth in a down market. Here is an excerpt: So in your mind the combination is a response to tougher economic […]

Business magazines outperform the industry in third quarter

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE Business-related titles performed better than the overall magazine industry in the third quarter, according to data released Tuesday by Publishers Information Bureau. The magazine industry saw a decline of 8.8 percent in advertising revenue and a 12.9 percent decline in ad pages for the quarter. However, a majority — nine — of […]