Fast Company changes web site to include user content

FastCompany released a new web site on Friday that blends its journalism with a substantial amount of content contributed from its online community.

The site uses a networking platform to encourage an ongoing business conversation among its members, editorial staff and everyday readers.

“Starting today, Mansueto Digital becomes the first major website to blend journalism with an online community to create something better than either by itself,” said Edward Sussman, president of Mansueto Digital, which operates FastCompany.com, in a statement. “There are a lot of powerful reasons why amateurs should be enabled to fully participate in the mainstream media.”

FastCompany.com, which attracts about 1 million unique visitors a month, was an early innovator in social media when it launched the Company of Friends, the first online business network, in November 1997. The new Fastcompany.com merges the existing Company of Friends network, which boasts 95,000 active members in 200 chapters world-wide, and the site’s editorial content, into one experience.

Readers can contribute member blogs, answer daily Fast Talk questions from the editors, participate in online discussions moderated by Fast Company editors and experts, and contribute content in many other ways. Editors’ selections of reader contributions are published with great prominence throughout the site, including on the homepage.

Member profiles will feature the content they contribute to the site, allowing readers to get to know one another via their writing.