How a freelance writer turned organizing parties into a business she went on to sell for $23 million. The 6th in our Pivot series.
Most journalists know Mediabistro as a freelancer’s resource, a place to scour job boards or enroll in classes on pitching magazine editors, copyediting, video production or "How to Write Chick Lit." Or perhaps they’ve come across its various media blogs such as FishbowlNY or TVNewser. But it didn’t start out that way. In fact, it started out as anything but. And its entrepreneurial founder? She started out as anything but, too. But it--and she--pivoted many times along the way.
In the early 1990s, after stints in advertising, woman’s magazines and business reporting, Laurel Touby was in her mid-thirties and living the less-than-glamorous life of a freelance writer and editor working out of her Manhattan apartment. A sociable person by nature, Touby found it isolating, and to combat her feelings of loneliness she often repaired to cafes to work. One day she struck up a conversation with a fellow freelance writer--she could tell he was a journalist by the stack of newspapers and magazines he was reading (remember?).
One thing led to another and they decided to co-host a high-minded salon where guests would talk about ideas and issues of the day. But their real agenda was to score work and meet members of the opposite sex. Soon after, they each invited 10 magazine and newspaper editors and held their first party at a French bistro in Manhattan’s East Village. It was a success, so they decided to make it a regular event. Soon word got out, so Touby unclasped the velvet rope to let in writers whose work she respected, and it snowballed from there. One week her friend got busy and couldn’t make it, so from then on Touby hosted the parties herself.
Back in those days I attended some of her parties, as did virtually every writer and editor I knew. And there was Touby bouncing around the room, wearing a feather boa so people could e...
[Source: Fast Company]
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