Inc. and Fast Company seeing higher newstand sales

Mansueto Ventures, the company that bought Inc. and Fast Company a couple of years ago in an attempt to turn them around, is trumpeting strong newsstand sales for the two business magazines in the last six months of the year, based on data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Among the more than 260 U.S. consumer magazines, Inc. ranks first with the highest percentage increase in growth of single copy newsstand sales and Fast Company ranks third, according to the just-released report.

Among the 700+ total U.S. ABC-audited titles, Inc. and Fast Company saw significant increases in their rate of growth of single copy newsstand sales. For the six months ended Dec. 31, 2006, Inc. ranks fifth, compared to 36th in the first half of 2006, and Fast Company ranks 12th, up from 77th in the same prior period.

For the six months ended Dec. 31, 2006, Inc. had a total paid circulation base of 690,559 and saw its newsstand sales increase 47% from the same period in 2005, to an average of 21,386. During the same period reported by ABC, Fast Company had a total paid circulation base of 750,178 and saw its total newsstand copies increase 37% from the same period in 2005.

“The FAS-FAX data reflects the tremendous vitality of Inc. magazine and Fast Company magazine in an environment that has been challenging to the publishing sector,� said Jayson Goldberg, publishing director, Mansueto Ventures LLC. “We’ve been very smart about how we have applied our growth investment dollars and we’ve taken great care in positioning our titles to be certain that they reach and engage business readers in an impactful and meaningful way. Clearly, our efforts are paying off.�

Read more here. Inc. saw a 4.4 percent decline in ad revenue in January, according to data from the Magazine Publishers of America. Fast Company’s ad revenue for the first month of the year was unavailable.