Serena Williams

Love the bow, the bling earrings might be a little much.

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Even after John Huey tried to keep Bob Safian on as editor of Fortune during the bloodshed at Time Inc. (or did he?), Safian opted to decamp to the more understanding waters of Joe Mansueto, the financier-cum-publisher whose Inc. and Fast Company are chiseling out space in the marketplace. (Cue Andy Serwer's leap to the top of Fortune.)

Now, since taking over the top job at Fast Company in January (swapping positions with Mark Vamos, who is now editor-at-large for Mansueto Ventures), Bob's first full issue as editor hits newsstands — just as Time Inc.' Fortune and Conde Nast's Portfolio battle on.

And since we'll likely be the only ones to care enough to flip through (nearly) all of its pages, let us offer you a preview.

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It was only about five seconds ago – okay, summer '05 – that the future of Fast Company and Inc. were in peril, what with Gruner + Jahr looking to dump them and not a single reasonable man looking to get into the business of business magazines. And then along came finance type Joe Manuseto and Mansueto Ventures, who plunked down $40 million (for a $550 million pair of mags). Sure, some said he was having a mid-life crisis, but guess who's laughing – or, more accurately, chortling – now?

It's Mansueto, who just got his FAS-FAX numbers. And they're shiny.

In the second half of '06, Inc.'s paid circ stood at 690,000, up some 47 percent from '05 — and putting it at the top of the list for newsstand growth. And as for Fast Company? Paid circ shot to 750,000, up 37 percent. Add to that the boost in web traffic to the mags' sites, and you're looking at one well stacked operation.

So c'mon, Portfolio, with your gloss and charm. Show us how it's supposed to be done. And by "it," of course, we mean "burn through your $100 million budget while Inc. manages to boost newsstand."

It'll be fun, and we'll all get together and roast a pig afterward.

• Brit rocking the boat with mysterious sailor friend Isaac Cohen; Cohen to be immediately branded a "hotter version of K-Fed."

• Halle Berry continues to be maybe, possibly, debatably pregnant.

• Yep, it's just like we always suspected. Matt Damon is an evil genius.

• After only a year and half as EIC at Fast Company, Mark Vamos "speedily" replaced by Fortune's Robert Safian.

• Paris Hilton tragically miscast as "Hottie" in upcoming new film role.

• Stashwax suing SNL for being unfunny, unoriginal.

It might not have been Inc. magazine's fault that Gruner + Jahr wanted to unload quicker than New Orleans does its water, but the title deserves a decent jabbing for only just realizing its sale and buyout would be a perfect story for a business magazine.

Like, its business magazine.

We don't plan to make a habit of writing about ourselves. In fact, when G+J AG announced in May that it was putting Inc. (and sister publication Fast Company) up for sale, it never occurred to us that we might end up writing a story about our auction. Obviously, we can't be as dispassionate about our own business as we try to be with others, but it's rare that we have ringside seats for such an interesting process and we learned so much that we decided to share it with you. We hope you'll find it worthwhile.

What we didn't expect, however, was a Les Moonves profile-sized item detailing the backstory of Joe Mansueto's eventual purchase, along with Fast Company. Good luck with that — it's a three-parter.

Former Fast Company editor John Byrne might be kicking himself after splitting for alma mater BusinessWeek, as FC's new owner Joe Mansueto would have picked him to head up his new publishing unit. Instead he only tapped John Koten, the EIC of his other new property Inc. magazine, to be the CEO of publishing arm Mansueto Ventures.

Had Byrne stayed on, the chief position would've been split between the two editors. Now it's just Koten who's taking his visions onward, hoping to establish clearer identities for the titles (said with a slight jab at FC). So what's Koten got in the bag for Fast Company?

I want to clarify Fast Company’s mission a bit more, and make sure it has something to do with something that’s going on in the economy now.

Ladies and gents, meet the new Fast Company: Something to do with something — about the economy! Brilliant. We're hearing reports the magazine will have something to do with money, but they're unconfirmed rumors at this point.

It really boggles our mind how Fast Company editor John Byrne – who personally lobbied Morningstar founder Joe Mansueto to save his magazine from Gruner + Jahr's bastardization – so quickly up and left for the yellow pastures of Business Week.

Not only did Byrne relate his in-limbo state to a hostage crisis and bitch all over his blog about the worth of his magazine, but Mansueto promised to keep the magazine's staff in tact (same went for Inc.) and even split up their ad sales team, effectively creating more jobs.

So unless both John Byrne and Joe Mansueto are big fat liars – which those in media are wont to be – the only logical explanation we can come up with is the same that Gawker did: Byrne lost a bet to Business Week during his softball game loss 18-6.

Back in January, Us Weekly's Kent Brownridge made an unfortunate comparison between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's split and the Asian tsunami that left more than 100,000 dead and plenty more injured and homeless, saying, "For a celebrity weekly, this is our tsunami."

He then publicly apologized the following day in the New York Daily News.

I used an inappropriate metaphor and I'm sorry that I in any way compared a monumental tragedy in human life to this. … I wish I'd said that this was our equivalent of covering the presidential election. I didn't mean to offend anybody.

Funny, then, that Fast Company editor John Byrne – who should feel real lucky for even having a job after Gruner + Jahr sold him out – would compare his situation of losing a cushy job to, uh, a hostage crisis.

It's a special sense, a feeling in the gut, one of sudden alarm. It's the sense that the magazine you're editing is about to fold. It came to John Byrne a few weeks back, on May 24.

That morning, in a stunning announcement, Gruner + Jahr said it was selling its four family magazines to Meredith. But left on the table in the deal were Inc. and Fast Company, Byrne's magazine. Word on the street was that someone would buy Inc.

Not so Fast Company. It was a goner, dead, or so the street had it.

"It was kind of like being in a hostage crisis," says Byrne, recalling the feeling that crept over him that day.

Well, John, you know our email address when you're ready to recant your statement.