Hostwriter was founded in Hamburg, Germany, in 2013 by German journalists Tamara Anthony, Tabea Grzeszyk and Sandra Zistl.

[1][2] Because these co-founders knew the difficulties journalists faced when trying to network across their city, or even their country, they built a platform that would make it easier.

[7] Hostwriter also organizes events such as panel discussions at the New York Times Athens Democracy Forum[8] and the International Journalism Festival in Perugia.

[9] With funding from Advocate Europe,[10] Hostwriter teamed up with Armenian Changemakers on the Agora Project, which established a temporary newsroom for ten young journalists from Croatia, Spain, Greece, Germany, Serbia, Italy, Great Britain, Austria, and Portugal.

[11] The journalists collaborated on stories about the biggest challenges facing Europe ahead of the 2017 European elections, including migration and citizenship rights, political polarization, and the threat robots pose to human jobs.

"[11] Hostwriter plans to repeat the program, organizing a cross-border collaboration project on every continent with the use of funding awarded through the Google Impact Challenge Germany 2018.

Hostwriter recently selected 28 members to act as representatives and to "communicate its vision and objectives to journalists and media professionals in their respective countries and regions."