Why Fast Company’s Mehta trusts her gut

Aarti Virani of Vogue India profiled Fast Company editor in chief Stephanie Mehta and examined her early career in business journalism.

Virani writes, “‘Trusting my gut, trusting my instincts and following my true north has always held me in good stead.’ That robust inner compass is precisely what steered Mehta towards her college newspaper office at Northwestern University as a freshman English major. ‘All the beats had been handed out, and it became clear that nobody really wanted to cover business; they [were more interested in] campus protests, or sports, or the cool acts coming to town,’ she recalls. ‘So I thought, ‘I’m going to zig when everybody else is zagging.’’ That maxim still guides Mehta, who openly bemoans journalism’s current breakneck, tweet-before-you-think pace. ‘Our profession is just so much more breathless now,’ she laments. She’s thankful to have inherited a publication that’s not galloping after breaking news, delivering carefully calibrated business, tech and design analyses instead.”

Read more here.