Announcing: a coworking press list
by Melissa Mesku
In June, a group of young writers in New York, united in their frustration about the difficulties facing writers of color, decided to do something. They set about creating a list that writers of color could add themselves to as they wished. Within a month, the list (now at writersofcolor.org) became a viable resource for editors seeking diverse voices.
Since we started the magazine a year ago, we’ve been hit up by journalists, TV producers, etc., asking us who they should contact for stories on coworking. We were like, oh, cool, um, go talk to this person. It wasn’t a very democratic way of doing things and it relied on what we personally knew about, which wasn’t much.
That’s why we created the coworking press list. It’s a resource (like a database) that journalists and media can use to find sources, stories and trends coming out of the coworking world. Looking at it from the other side, the press list is a compendium of people who cowork, and an easy way for any person who coworks to have their story picked up by a publication, news show, etc.
Journalists are looking for people who cowork for stories on the industry, the changing world of work, etc. When they want to track down members, they usually find them the same way we found them: by calling a coworking space and asking to be connected with someone. That works, but it’s not great. For one, it relies too heavily on coworking space operators – often they don’t have time to respond and as a result no story gets told. The real problem, though, is that it limits the voices that get to be heard. As with writers of color, the stories we will find within coworking are diverse, valuable, and need to be heard. Hopefully this will make it a little easier.
Add yourself to the list here: Coworking Press List
