Media Alchemy Guild’s Origin Story
How We Are Doing Things Differently While Making a Difference
The story of Media Alchemy Guild is a harrowing tale of intrigue, suspense, and the power of a community coming together in the face of loss. It is also just one side of the story, a fact which is probably legally prescient to put front and center as we begin.
Late on a Wednesday afternoon, eighty-seven Scribe Media employees were invited to an ominously nondescript meeting. A few hours later, those people were out of work without severance. They were sent official layoff notices saying that the company was shutting down operations and their assets were being liquidated. Their laptops were locked. Their insurance benefits were cut off. Just that morning, they had been part of a Crew. Now suddenly they were very much on their own.
Scribe Media had been the pinnacle of elite hybrid publishing for non-fiction books. With an extensive catalog full of best-selling titles, the startup was seen as a rising star in the industry. The thing that made it really special, however, was its focus on the people who worked there (a claim that would come under close scrutiny in the face of the layoffs).
Whether or not Scribe Media was truly a steward of the “People First” mentality they had relentlessly incorporated into their brand, one thing was absolutely true: the content creators, editors, designers, marketing specialists, and publishing experts who worked there truly were the best of the best. Experienced, compassionate, curious, and passionate, these individuals are what made Scribe Media what it was.
While controversies swirled around Scribe Media’s subsequent financial, ethical, and reputational issues, the former colleagues (along with a large number of the former company’s freelance creatives) gathered together to process what had just happened and provide support for each other.
A few things became clear as they talked:
- They wanted to continue working together
- They cared deeply about continuing to provide their content creation and publishing expertise to clients
- They had to try doing things a different way
Media Alchemy Guild started as a way to help each other network and gather new clients. Just a simple website with everyone’s names and how to contact them, a collective calling card, and (not so secretly) a way to keep collaborators’ creative brains active as they began the tedious work of applying for jobs. Then things got interesting.
More and more people began showing interest in helping, creating sign-up spreadsheets, assisting in website updates, volunteering their copyediting and design skill sets. They began sending money to help cover expenses, even as they dealt with financial instability and unreliable income. More and more membership requests came in.
After its soft launch, exactly one month after the Scribe Media layoff, interest in Media Alchemy Guild skyrocketed. Membership ballooned to over fifty experts in two days, officially making the brand new guild 250% the current size of their former employer. Other leaders in the content creation and publishing industry began reaching out, wondering how to collaborate with this pool of talent.
The guild had to quickly expand to its own social media presence, set up more communication platforms, and form a committee to figure out what exactly to do with all this attention. More importantly, they had to figure out how to avoid falling into old, harmful ways of working by:
Resisting traditional corporate structures
Media Alchemy Guild is a collective of individual contractors, freelancers, and consultants. Everyone who joins is invited to participate to the extent they are interested. The small operations committee is volunteer-based and expected to rotate as member capacity waxes and wanes. While those interested in taking on more responsibility are given the authority to carry out their area of expertise, there is no structured hierarchy of power.
Focusing on resource exchange as the price of participation
Members are not expected to pay commissions or membership fees to be a part of the guild. They retain the copyright to any work they put into the collective, from design work to articles for this very blog. They receive access to a deep pool of industry knowledge, client leads, and community in addition to increased visibility on official guild platforms. In exchange, the expectation is that anyone who is in a position to contribute in some way (supplementing operation costs, connecting a fellow member to a potential client, designing a logo) do so when they feel like it.
Centering a degrowth mindset
One thing that the members of Media Alchemy Guild can attest to is the danger of an organization growing too fast and burning out. Even as they experience an uptick in interest and opportunity, they are being mindful about what they are committing to and practicing the bravery it takes to say “no.” The mission of the guild is not to take over the industry or make millions of dollars, but rather to be able to support its members, foster a community of creative and kind experts, and be known for providing reliable and high-quality work.
Of course, Media Alchemy Guild has only been in this world a short while. Everything is still very plastic, tenuous, wide open with possibility. Whatever comes next, the hopes, dreams, and mission of the guild will remain responsive to the needs of its members, potential clients, and ever-shifting content creation and publishing industry landscape.
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