South End Press (1978) was founded to raise consciousness about class, gender, race, and power and to provide information, analysis, and vision to help activism. Z Magazine (1987) aimed to bring more diverse information more often and to increase the visibility of writers and illustrators.In ZCom, we added ZNet and ZTranslations, ZMI, ZVideo, and most recently ZEO and ZSpace including ZBlogs and ZForums.

Z Magazine was founded by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent. Lydia in turn initiated ZVideo and works overwhelmingly on ZMag and ZVideo. Michael initiated ZNet and works overwhelmingly on web operations. Eric Sargent joined in the late 1980s and works on Z Magazine and ZVideo. Andy Dunn (ZMI 2000) joined in 2005 and works on Z Magazine and ZVideo. Chris Spannos (ZMI 2001) joined in 2006, working on ZNet. Everyone works on ZMI.

ZCom also gets volunteer help. Brian Dominick (ZMI 1999) helped design and program ZNet. Justin Podur and Stephen Shalom have assisted editorially for years. Other volunteers work on some watch pages and especially and with great devotion and energy on Z Translations.

The online operations have been through many incarnations. Originally Left Bulletin Board System (PBBS), they morphed into Left On Line,  ZNet, and finally ZCom. Even ZCom has itself had lifetimes, already – two major makeovers, among other changes brought us to the current situation in which which now, to ZNet, ZMag, ZVideo, and and ZMI, we add ZSpace.