What we unleashed was a point of view about the future that took the form of a magazine. The magazine was the vessel, but the magazine wasn’t the point. The message was the point.
In the summer of 1995, host Patrick Mitchell got an offer he couldn’t refuse. It came from this episode’s guests, Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, the founding editors of Fast Company, widely acknowledged as one of the magazine industry’s great success stories.
Their vision for the magazine was an exercise in thinking different. “Nothing we did hewed to the conventional wisdom of magazine-making. Our founders came from politics and activism, born in the ivy halls of Harvard. Our HQ was far from the center of the magazine world, in Boston’s North End—“leave the pages, take the cannolis.” And Fast Company was not a part of the five families of magazine publishing. It wouldn’t have worked if it was.
Mitchell was one of the first people Webber and Taylor hired, and as the magazine’s founding art director, he could tell Fast Company was going to be big. And it was big. Huge, in fact. Shortly after its launch, a typical issue of the magazine routinely topped out at almost 400 pages. They had to get up to speed, and fast.
Its mission was big, too. Webber and Taylor’s plan sounded simple: to offer rules for radicals that would be inspiring and instructive; to encourage their audience to think bigger about what they might achieve for their companies and themselves, and to provide tools to help us all succeed in work … and in life. Their mantra: Work is personal.
The effect, however, was even bigger. The magazine was a blockbuster hit, winning ASME awards for General Excellence and Design. It was Ad Age’s 1995 Launch of the Year. Webber and Taylor were named Adweek’s editors of the year in 1999. It even spawned its own reader-generated social network, the Company of Friends, that counted over 40,000 members worldwide. And it brought together an extraordinary team of creatives who, to this day, carry on the mission in their own way—including the founders.
Nearly thirty years after the launch of the magazine, Alan Webber is currently serving his second term as the mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Bill Taylor is the best-selling author of Mavericks at Work, among other books, and continues to lead the conversation on transforming business.
Mitchell often said that Fast Company was the one that would ruin all future jobs. It was a moment in time that he and his colleagues will treasure forever. He shares that story with us today.
Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) is a podcast about magazines and the people who made (and make) them. Magazines that combined thought-provoking attitudes and values with a distinctive look and feel, and cast a long and powerful shadow on American culture and public discourse. Hear stories and learn lessons from legendary designers, editors, writers, publishers, photographers, illustrators, photo editors, and more—stories and lessons that capture a magical history of innovation and inspiration, and that point the way forward. We’ll go deep into the lives and careers of this astonishingly talented group of creators, and tease out what these giants—past and present—have to teach the next generation of creators.
If you’re in the magazine business—if you’re in any business focused on content creation—this podcast is for you.
This episode is made possible by PIDLLP sponsors Commercial Type, Mountain Gazette, and Freeport Press.
The team behind Print is Dead (Long Live Print!) also produces The Full Bleed, a podcast about the future of magazines and the magazines of the future. Check out their newest podcast, The Next Page.
The post The Brand Called Us | Alan Webber and Bill Taylor appeared first on PRINT Magazine.