Serious news and would be interested to hear more about the background strategic decision.

Do G&J perceive Fast Company (FC) as somewhat heretical or at least off the wall in terms of the corporate paradigm for doing business in the Wall Street monthly results culture - or are they presumably are in a mental trap about the way business is changing in the world and even in the US?
In other words the complexity and the positive fleet of foot that FC espouses for 21st century organisations is not on their radar screen.

So two clear choices - either a buyer with foresight or a potential MBO to allow arguably the other key stakeholders, as well as the staff and authors, - ie the readers to "keep the faith"

Steve

To John & Editorial Staff,

I wish you all the best of luck in this transitional period. Your passion, widom and integrity is greatly appreciated.

I look forward to reading Fast Company for years to come.

All the best,

Brad Newman
Founder
Aroma Hand

http://www.aromahand.com

Perhaps you will come out better through this struggle. That is what we hear from leaders all the time, isn't it?

I look forward to ever issue of FC. Its the only mag I subscribe to. Now I'm looking forward to you folks showing us how to make a difference while under fire.

Wow. This is one of those defining moments, when the earth moves beneath your feet in unpredictable ways and nothing looks at all like familiar terrain.

Wish you all much intestinal fortitude and a bright personal north star to sail by when all the other landmarks fall below the horizon.

(Psst...Martha! This would be a nice addition to add to Omnimedia - how-tos for home and family, body and soul, and now meaningful work? Yeah - I like it!)

Fast Company is indeed the best business magazine on the continent and perhaps a close best as a design magazine. As a design management magazine it is outstanding. Thank you for a consistently excellent publication. Keep it going.

Hang in there, FC team. A lot of people believe in the subjects about which you write. I hope a company comes along that believes in your mission as well, and gives you the room to continue it.

Management buyout isn't a bad idea. It would make Fast Company an independent entity. The management gets to be accountable for its own fate. And most employees are likely to keep their jobs. The key to an MBO is to find equity sponsor(s), most often leveraged buyout firms. LBO firms like companies that generate predictable cash flow which for publishers like FC, largely derives from advertising revenue and newsstand sales. The drawback of an MBO, however, is that the equity sponsor may fold the magazine into other titles it already owns or lay off redundant employees to cut costs - a price to pay to be independent.

Who is buying this? FC For Sale???

Fast Company has been a true inspirator from the moment I set eyes on your daily Fast tracks and First impressions. Thanks to the fantastic editing and timing from all individual writers and critics: the momentum seemed always right!

FC seem to be able to encompass a very wide array of strongly related subjects - all very relevant to business innovation.

I just would not do without FC' silient guidance. Makes each day a surprise.

I sincerly hope there is a way to just continue what you were doing - in a very promissing future! I hope everybody stays onboard in this transitional period.

What ever happens to the new management setup: don't change the talent that make FC live!!!

Regards,

Jerome Bertrand.

ladies and gentlemen, been there, done that. Wonderful advice and homiles all, now for the practicalities of the 21st century: Warm Up Your Resumes.

Roger Fulton
Yuma, Arizona

This is terrible news!
I wish all of you the best, you've been doing great work and I hope somebody will buy the team so they can continue. They should continue.
(I just hope the decision to sell didn't have anything to do with my partner John Thackara being a guest blogger this week....;-)

Mergers are occuring more rapidly than ever due to the increase in protection to intellectual property.

FC can take advantage of your situation by created an issue of the magazine on the topic of how to merge company policies and procedures and without losing efficiency

I hope you're listening to the suggestions about finding funding to buy out the magazine. I work for a company that used to be part of a media conglomerate. Things have gone well for us once our leaders took us private.

As an inaugural subscriber to FastCompany, I fell in love with your magazine the second I read the introductory issue. It is the only business magazine that I read. FastCompany is different, innovative, and motivational. Over the years, I have forwarded many pertinent articles, and have bought several gift subscriptions for colleagues higher up in my corporate ladder when I feel they could stand to benefit from FastCompany's perspective (sometimes anonymously).

Having survived working for a corporation who was sold four times in the six years I worked for them, I know how difficult and bad for morale this transition can be. I want you to know that it was FastCompany who got me through those tough times at work, so I have confidence that you will all come out on top. My hope is that this will be as great a learning and growth opportunity for everyone at FastCompany as it was for for me.

If I had the money I would buy the magazine and let you all do what you do so well! (maybe all of us who love FastCompany can pool our resources and purchase the magazine ourselves so we can ensure that the quality and integrity of FastCompany remains intact). "Strap on your seatbelts its going to be a bumpy ride".

We are sending all good vibes your way. You have a huge fan base out there and a bevy of devoted readers. For G&J to bail now, just when small business in the U.S. is ready to explode, just shows their lack of foresight.

Keep the faith - we love you!

It is jarring news to find out you are being sold to the highest bidder. It is not unlike how slaves must have felt.

If I were you I would turn this development to my advantage by buying the magazine. Negotiate a firm price and start raising funds (equity & debt) at the same time. After you own it, seek more equity investors, or take it public to pay off the debt. Try to limit the ownership of any equity investor, or you will end up with someone sitting on your desk asking how much profit you are going to make today. Plus,the same thing could happen again in few years.

Whatever you do, I hope FAst Company remains the bright shining light of business publications. I'll be sick if it morphs into Business Week.

Hang tough guys, it doesn't have to be a bad thing...change is (or at least, can be) good, which you tell us all the time.

Need inspiration? Do what I do. Read through back issues of FC, snag a quote that sings to your soul, make it your mantra and theme song, then carry on. When it loses it's power to recharge and/or heal, go get another one. Whether you've got your chin up or sunk in your chest, just keep moving.

You FC folks have pulled me through a profitable career change and two successful job jumps. You've talked it, now walk it.

Blessings to all in your work family,
Shena

So sorry to hear John Byrne! Regards, Dick Sethi

We wish you well and will pray that you'll reflect back on this someday as the best thing that ever happened to you and FC.

I hope this is NOT part of a bigger issue, Outsourcing America. And what are we going to do about that?

As far as the for sale of the Fast Company? Some of the comments from readers are very wise and perhaps worth considering. If done well they could work. There needs to be a champion with a drive and a passion to continue the Fast Company to be the Best of the Best! It has been done in the past, and this could be a case study of the Fast Company. I am already envisioning the title - "How we dealt with FOR SALE issue of our own Fast Company and trived..."

All the best!

Teresa

The business world cannot afford to lose the aspirational voice of Fast Company. Here's hoping a buyer will emerge who understands the valuable contribution Fast Company can STILL have.

You need only look into your own pages to find the solution to your present situation. Make a strong business case for going forward, should you then not survive it will not be because your owner got out of the market, it will more likely be you simply failed to get into the market.

Wow. This could be good.

Whatever happens, keep the preservation and growth of the FC community a priority.

It seems to me that all the really cool Heath Row projects aren't as visible and plentiful as they once were -- Really innovative stuff like the Road Shows and the CoF.

Get back to the grassroots. Give us more Heath Row, and Heath Row-esque content and inspiration.

Maybe it's time for things to get better. If the parent company's views are different from the readers who look forward to the knowledge you supply, maybe you need to be adopted by a parent who thinks differently.

To quote Peter Drucker, "The purpose of a business is to create customers" and Fast Company doesn't fall short in this purpose. John, as long as you have customers, you have a business. And let me assure you, your customers need you.

If better sense does not prevail with G & J, you're better off without them. I'm sure whoever buys out will know the intrinsic value of Fast Company and things will only get better.

Good luck and all good wishes your way.

I have enojoyed FC since 1997 and hope that a strong leader will bring FC the vision and allow it to continue to grow and share the cutting edge to its readers.

I really hope all goes well and FC continues on forever. I read each issue, cover to cover (even the design and hero issues!) and always pick up good stuff. I really like the articles on companies like WalMart and how they operate, and the whole outsourcing issue coverage.

That, and I just re-upped for another 2 year subscription. I don't mind the loss of money, I mind the loss of the ONLY print magazine I read on a regular basis.

Live long and profit!

I've been a loyal reader since your third issue (and I also read Inc.). I have to say, personally, I think you'll be better off without G&J. I'm not sure they share your mission or passion for what you do, and I have felt that way from the moment they acquired you. I believe it is strictly an economic issue for them (sorry to sound cynical). A business has to make money, of course, but it's the life of the business and the benefit it provides to others that create the bonds with customers, and it's those bonds that lead to economic prosperity and a future.

I agree with the people who suggested going back to your roots and looking to your own magazine for the solution. I think you'll find a buyer who will let you do your best work. And, if that fails (which I don't it will), maybe you can all go work for Worthwhile Magazine.

I know you will make it through this adventure with a reenergized and even more laser-focused mission. I'm an entrepreneur these days, mainly due to possibilities I saw for the first time in the pages of FC. FC and Worthwhile are my two regular business mag subscriptions, and the two business mag RSS sites on my start page.

I've subscribed since nearly the beginning, when I was just hitting my stride in my conventional career, and can say without reservation that the FC content and style contributed to my personal and professional success. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the groundbreaking work of FC helped make Worthwhile even possible!

I've kept every FC back issue, even though I could likely find the content on the web now, because I love the look and feel of each piece - the colors, the layout, the visuals, the *heft.* Best wishes on navigating this new territory. Can't wait to see what's next.

Thanks for your kind words and thoughts. They are much appreciated by all of us here at Fast Company. And we expect a positive outcome when all is said and done. Stay tuned.

I, like Ann Valtine, have read FC since its founding, and it is the only business mag that gets my subscription money. I believe in what you do.

Now, managing a transition when the future is unknown has to be approached optimistically and opportunistically.

Not only should you catalog the change, but blog it as well. Take advantage of the opportunity to show the value of the magazine by capturing a perspective on organizational change that is not a set of abstract ideas or even a detached report about some other company.

The reality is that whether businesses are being sold or not, they are in transition, and here's the opportunity to look more deeply and personally into the experience that FC will go through.

If business is personal, then this transition is too, and your loyal readers will stick with you because live what you espouse.

As you go through this time of transition, your staff and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.

There's really not much more I can add to the great comments already here, but I just felt the need to add my voice to those supporting FC, and especially Heath and his efforts.

Fast Company has been a huge part of my career (and personal) transformation in the past 10 years and while I feel a sense of tredipation over the pending sale, the things I have learned from FC over the years give me a lot of reasons to be optimistic, too.

This is surely one of the transformational opportunities for the FC staff that all of the FC fans out there face in their job situations, and read about in the pages of the magazine. I'll be watching with support am confident that an innovative solution will emerge.

Love and light to all the FC staff and readers!

Already said, but worth repeating: You produce a terrific, valuable magazine that has helped my career, and on more than one occasion, changed my thinking. And as the comments above validate, I'm not the only one who would disagree with the notion that FC is "more of an idea than an actual magazine." I hope that you all can continue efforts in some form.

Please purchase the company for your readers' sake. Let's see what you and your management team are made of. You've got the contacts. Now get busy and do a management buy out!!!!!!!!

It's me, Delta 4 again.

You are in a battle for your lives. Act like it and take matters into your hands. PURCHASE THE DAMN COMPANY. Stop fuckin around. We need your guys to continue publishing. Not Brian Tierney and his republican gangster-capitalist horde.

Reading some of the comments at your site make me want to vomit. There's no fight in their comments. "Transition" Bullshit. Who are these people? White liberals who are happy and a fat and living off of their parents and grand parents wealth?

Now get busy and act like your lives and those of your family members' depended on you doing a successful MBO.