Mediabistro.com: Connecting Creative and Content Industry Professionals With Technology

Laurel Touby, the founder and cyberhostess of mediabistro.com, believes that technology is a natural way to network people with shared professional interests. What started in 1994 as a cocktail party has now grown into a website where more than 1 million persons visit monthly to find jobs, take classes, and connect about topics surrounding the media and freelance marketplace. 

The original idea for mediabistro.com was cooked up in 1994, when Laurel—then a freelance business writer and Glamour magazine contributor—and a friend decided to host a mixer for media people. About 20 editors, writers, and other content creators came to that original cocktail party at Jules Bistro in the East Village.

In this podcast, Touby shares her ideas and experiences about media, technology, and her role as a female entrepreneur.

Attendees bought their own drinks and enjoyed casual after-work bonding in the company of like-minded people. The parties quickly grew, and soon Laurel had 4,000 of New York's top media talent on her email list. After creating a website in 1996 and adding features such as job listings, bulletin boards, classes, e-classes, media and a freelance marketplace, Touby's business began to take off.

Touby, who has written for publications ranging from Business Week, to Glamour, and Travel + Leisure, wants to revolutionize the way creative and content industry professionals relate. Mediabistro.com strives to find ways for talented professionals in related industries to meet informally, mentor each other, work on projects together, and share collective experiences. Today, the site also includes news, events and "learn" emails, as well as media industry blogs.

The podcast series is part of the Women | Tools | Technology Challenge, sponsored by Ashoka Changemakers and ExxonMobil in partnership with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) that also included interviews with Marissa Mayer of Google, Leslie Harris, the President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Sheila Kromholtz of the Center for Responsive Politics.