you're invited to Deez Drinks: a magazine & media happy hour

Co-hosted by Teen Vogue’s Mi-Anne Chan :)

Earlier this spring, I was chatting with a class of very smart journalism students at the New School about the importance of “horizontal networking.” It’s a kind of soulless-sounding term I picked up at some point that essentially just means “meeting and befriending your industry peers,” since those are the people who usually end up helping you most in your career over time: They’re the ones who’ll give you a good reference, who’ll send freelance work your way, or who end up hiring you themselves, especially once everyone in the cohort starts aging up and accruing power. I would say more than 90% of the assignments and work I’ve gotten as a freelancer, for example, have come by way of an industry friend.

The conversation with these students then turned to a question of where and how one meets these potential colleagues and collaborators. After all, becoming “Twitter friends” isn’t really a thing anymore. So I was like, Well, where are the good media happy hours?? thinking back to my own halcyon days piecing together a full dinner from the bites spread at many a Digiday happy hour.

These students looked at me as if I were speaking a totally foreign language. Media happy hours? Sure, there were invite-only parties and brand activations and pleeeeenty of readings galore in the New York media scene these days, but otherwise, it seems that no one’s really hosting a networking event just for the hell of it. I went home that day just a little too distraught — won’t someone think of the media pipeline?????? — and then woke up the next day blazing with the idea to revive Deez Drinks.

If you’re an OG reader, you’ll remember “Deez Drinks” as a bunch of random happy hours I hosted in like 2016 and 2017 in an attempt to get my new New York friends to meet each other. (The Loreley Beer Garden in the LES, bless their heart, gave us their basement space for free, though the vibe was decidedly sex dungeony, and the space much too small.) We’re a long ways out from that era for many reasons, but I think we can bring back the original convivial magic of Deez Drinks in full force…

Which is all to say: You are formally invited to Deez Drinks, the first in our new media happy hour series, on July 14 at Public Records in Brooklyn, New York. To make the networking UX extra dialed-in, we’re loosely theming each happy hour by field — this first one will be all about magazines, and is co-hosted by Teen Vogue’s creative editorial director Mi-Anne Chan. The entire evening is presented in partnership with Ruth Ann Harnisch, who is a founding partner of Deez Links (and who also sponsored our giant Hate Read event last year. Thank you, Ruth Ann!), with support from Smart Friends Network.

So! If you’re interested in working in magazine journalism, want to meet other folks who already work in magazines (including writers and editors from New York, The New Yorker, Interview, CNN, Cake Zine, Vanity Fair, Highsnobiety, Slate, amongst others, plus your faves from Substack) or just love reading and talking about magazines, these are gonna be your people, whatever your level of “job experience” is. You can buy a $15 ticket from Eventbrite here (which includes a drink ticket, a discount code to attend Teen Vogue Fest on July 25, and a code to join the freelance community Study Hall at half-off). There will be food, a photographer, and also “magazine bingo,” where you can win a bundle of 1-year subscriptions to your favorite magazine outlets. (We’re planning for 200+ folks, so you should RSVP as soon as you can!)

Thank you to Mi-Anne for being our esteemed co-host and to Rachel Yang for being New York’s hardest working event planner. Thank you to Ruth Ann Harnisch once again for unwavering support in helping the people create the media ecosystem we want to see.

So! Come meet your future colleagues, collaborators, and co-conspirators! I will see you there.