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Media

Does Fast Company really understand the Internet?

By thomascrampton ⋅ February 17, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

FastcompanyIt is not surprising that mainstream and established media companies don’t understand the Internet, but apparently high profile upstart Fast Company doesn’t either.

Let me explain:

The magazine/website Fast Company just wrote about an incident in which Facebook almost ended my marriage.

The story, picked up from my blog posting on the incident, has been written about by a number of blogs and publications.

The blogs, Boing Boing and Justin Fox at Time magazine, both linked back to the posting when they wrote about it.

The London Evening Standard and the French newspaper Liberation, however, did not link to the posting when they mentioned it in articles.

You’d think that things would be different at Fast Company, but apparently not.

Linkbacks serve the interests of readers in giving transparency for the source of information, so why don’t publications do it? Martin Varsavsky wrote a thoughtful piece on the issue here.

UPDATE: Businessweek apparently hates the web even more than Fast Company! Don MacAskill of Smugmug has a great posting about how Businessweek actually blocked him from deeplinking to an article written about him. How do they expect to get readers if they don’t allow recommendations? (Thanks to Yusuf for highlighting this!)

UPDATE: Fast Company just updated the article to include a link. Lynne Johnson of Fast Company said (in comment below) that the oversight came due to a rush to close the magazine for Valentine’s Day. Romance is always a valid explanation!

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Media

Discussion

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  • Haris
    That's crazy how they said Facebook almost ruined their marriage. It is funny how mainstream media don't fully utilize the power of the internet. Even mmorpg game companies are starting to market their products with beta vids/trailers on the web...it's growing.
  • thomascrampton
    Lynne,

    Thanks for updating the comment and including the link.

    Valentine's Day is a fully valid explanation for the oversight!

    As for the upstart reference, that is not related to your publication's age, but the way in which you challenge orthodoxy.

    In that light, I am very interested to see how the integration of community goes with your recently revamped your site.

    Good luck,

    Tom
  • Thomas, for one, FastCompany.com is not an upstart. The magazine has been around nearly 10 years, and the website even longer, though we've recently had an upgrade to our site.

    As for linking back, that was totally an oversight on our editorial part. The writer had not supplied the link and we were under pressure to get the story up by Valentines Day, and thus that's probably how we missed it. Not excusable at all. But we were also in the midst of getting this public beta out while still managing our traditional journalism functions.

    With that said, trust me, we get it. You brought it to our attention and it will be corrected.

    Thanks for paying attention.
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thomascramptonconf

Thomas Crampton was a correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times for more than a decade, reporting from five continents, writing a column on Asia and covering Asian politics, economics and culture. Currently based in Hong Kong, he writes here about China, the Internet and New Media seen from Asia, while also advising companies on digital communication strategies. For more information click here...