Fast Company Now FC Now
URL: blog.fastcompany.com
Created by: Rob Roesler created the blog; Editorial and Community Director Heath Row is the lead contributor.
Date of birth: August 5, 2003
Numbers count: The blog has gotten a lot of traffic but hasn't been tracked reliably. Fast Company has recently switched to a different tracking system to eliminate hits by robots and spiders. In general, however, traffic has trended upward since the blog was launched, with peaks around certain posts.
The Gist: Fast Company has published a business magazine focusing on revolutionary business practices and its impact on the world since 1995. In print and online, the magazine now has a print distribution of 725,000 and 3.2 million readers. In 2003, Fast Company decided to launch a team blog that multiple Fast Company writers, designers, and production staff could take part in. It was the first business magazine to launch a blog and one of the first magazines to do so. The blog gives Fast Company the ability to alert readers to issues that aren't being covered by a full story in the magazine — software that wouldn't be reviewed but might still be useful, a trend that was fully formed enough to merit 800 words or a quick opinion or stance. It is also a great way for Fast Company to ask questions of its readers and get a better idea of where trends and interests lie. Contributors also use the blog as a way to direct readers' attention to old stories suddenly current again or Web-only offerings that they might otherwise miss. The blog's major themes are leadership, innovation, and change, which reflects the general editorial direction of the magazine as well. On any given day, 3 to 5 people are assigned to blog, but as many as 20 may actually do so. There are 8 to 10 core contributors who post frequently and one staff member who comments regularly on posts.
The Technical Details: FC Now is run on Movable Type. Fast Company also uses RSS to display the most recent entries on the home page of the magazine Web site. They use the MT-Blacklist plug-in to monitor and remove spam comments.
The Financial Details: Fast Company used in-house technical and design staff to set up the blog and purchased a multiple-author Movable Type license. Staff time used in producing the blog varies, depending on the frequency of posts. Lead contributor Heath Row says that by far the biggest staff time is spent in removing spam comments from the site, sometimes up to 1.5 hours a day. The site makes revenue from advertising.
What's Cool: FC Now is remarkable in the journalism industry generally for its demonstration of openness and transparency in the organization. For instance, FC Now has frequently opened its doors to bring guest bloggers aboard. At the time of the blog's one-year anniversary, Fast Company held the FC Now Blog Jam and invited more than 30 readers to guest blog over the course of 2 days. Authors of books reviewed by the magazine are frequently invited to guest-blog for a week on topics of their choice.
Plans for the Future: Fast Company is looking for ways to integrate FC Now content more fully into the rest of the magazine Web site, beginning by pulling FC Now posts onto topic-related pages of the magazine Web site and by automatically generating topic newsletters from blog posts. As Fast Company expands its Readers' Network — an on- and offline social network of readers — it plans to offer a blog to every member (there are currently 10,000) and then help members with related interests meet and exchange ideas.
Business Advice: Heath Row: "Be part of the broader community. Don't approach a business blog as a stand-alone blog. Figure out how the Web and the blog world works before you get started. Wade in the water for a while before launching."

The Fast Company linking policy came under fire for its limitations and difficulty of use; the company was slammed in the blog world. The company reevaluated its policy, changed it, and participated in the online discussion on its blog and on others. Heath Row says the company got a lot of negative attention, but "had I not been part of the community, it would have been so much worse. I wouldn't have been able to respond. People who came to our defense did so because we had connections with them."
Technical Advice: Heath Row: "Be sure you have the time to keep comments clean, even if it's just responding to criticisms within the comments. If you don't allow comments, what kind of feedback mechanism do you offer? Reverse flow as well as outward flow. Keep it up to date."
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