From the Book Business to the Storytelling Business
It all began with books.
In 1993, our founder, Charles Melcher, launched Melcher Media, a boutique agency that built a reputation for producing innovative, high-quality illustrated books in unique formats for some of the world’s biggest companies, media properties, and authors.
“At the heart of every powerful experience is an exceptional story.”
In 2008, the global financial crisis hit, and the digital age caught up with the publishing industry. Initially fearing that books might soon be replaced by new technology, we quickly realized that although new digital tools have always been disruptive to traditional mediums, at the heart of every powerful experience is an exceptional story. We understood that our company was no longer just in the book business—it was in the storytelling business.
Our first step toward embracing this disruption was to approach Al Gore, with whom we had worked on the books An Inconvenient Truth and its sequel, Our Choice, and suggest that we turn Our Choice into a multimedia interactive app. Over the next year—along with a talented team of developers—we created and launched an award-winning app, developed a new set of authoring tools, and co-launched a digital authoring company, Push Pop Press, which would go on to be purchased by Facebook. Other successful and award-winning digital projects soon followed.
Once it became clear that Melcher Media’s storytelling skills spanned format and medium, the Future of StoryTelling was born. Founded in 2012 with the launch of the first FoST Summit, FoST gathers the world’s top creatives, executives, and technologists from the storytelling world and gets them networking, sharing best practices, cross-pollinating, and collaborating.
Today, FoST has grown into a passionate community and thriving creative studio devoted to mastering the potential of the digital age to tell powerful stories that make the world a better place.