An "almost political" act. “But above all because its content model rewards and spurs correct behavior and demands a certain ethics on the part of those who have to say something by developing a reasoning, as happened in the Platonic Academy of Athens. If you enter a clean, well-kept, tidy and civilly disposed environment, it is difficult for you to throw paper on the floor or dirty the toilets. The environment that communicates respect generally receives respect. “Medium” is somewhat built around this reciprocity of respect which should be normal, but which in cyberspace is not at all”.
It is as if "Medium" had been created by someone who, coming from a dystopian experience, has a precise idea of the behaviors he wants to eradicate and those he wants to establish. And in fact, Ev William, the founder of "Medium", is one of the creators of what he himself has come to recognize as a sort of dystopian creature, Twitter. Williams, who comes from a farming family in Nebraska, remains the microblogging's largest individual shareholder to this day and sits on its board of directors. However, in an interview with the "New York Times", released immediately after the presidential elections, he expressed his disgust at the turn the Internet has taken under the domination of social media. He told the New York newspaper without mincing words, despite his meek and measured nature:
“I thought the world would automatically become a better place if everyone had the opportunity to express themselves freely and exchange ideas and information. But I was wrong… Twitter put Trump in the White House… I apologize”.
The word at the center of the communication system
Williams' new project was born from the awareness that "the Internet is broken". To redefine a new media model in an environment crushed by fake news and worthless content. “A space for reading and writing and little else, with words at the centre”. It is encouraging that in the age of visual communication, someone sets out to put the word back at the centre, i.e. reading, writing, reflection, argumentation and concentration and listening.
And that's exactly what "Medium" wants to be. The project, launched in 2013, has aroused many perplexities, skepticism and even irony (Williams' hobby, the "vanity project"), but also a certain respect. "The Atlantic" dubbed Williams the "Forrest Gump of the Internet."
Beyond the excellent intentions, with which the road to Hell has always been paved, "Medium" has been able to build a model that works well in terms of quality content. Above all because he knows how to mix well the three sources he uses: the independent authors who publish spontaneously, the authors to whom the editorial team commissions the themes and finally the contributions of the major newspapers.
And it's also starting to work in terms of business sustainability, because nobody wants content to become an act of patronage by the one percent or a mere vehicle for aggregating big data.
The "Medium" model is a structured and complex model that is not easy to discern in all its articulations concerning readers, publishers, but also and above all authors. In the following lines it is Ev Williams who illustrates it to us.
Ev Williams in a cartoon of "The Atlantic" illustrating Robinson Meyer's report, entitled "The Forrest Gump of the Internet" published on June 16, 2016.
In "The rationalization of publishing," I argued that subscriptions for large-scale publishing are inevitable — and that's a good thing. Now I will describe “Medium's” unique approach to this trend.
First, for those who don't know, “Medium” has a subscription offer called Medium Membership. It was launched just over a year ago with good success.
“Medium” subscriber growth
Heraclitus portrayed by Raphael in The School of Athens. The fragmentary and oracular style of the pre-Socratic philosopher inspired an informal posture in Raphael. Heraclitus is depicted sitting sprawled absorbed on the stairs of the Academy.
After a sustained start (i.e. when people subscribed to support the mission of “Medium”), and then a decline (i.e. when we were trying to figure out how to move forward), today we are seeing, not only an increase in subscribers, but at the highest increases in subscribers on a monthly basis (i.e. a sudden acceleration of growth).
It took us a while to understand and implement the actions that started this trend. In reality these actions are essentially two:
1. Put the best posts behind a metered paywall (free access to a limited number of articles per month and then subscription required to read them).
2. Help readers find stories they're interested in.
“Medium” has a similar subscription model to other publications like the “Washington Post” or the “New Yorker” — and even similar to Spotify and Netflix. We sell content to subscribers. Like most toll sites, we offer some stories for free (currently, there are three a month). But, unlike most paid publications, we are based solely on ad-free subscriptions and have a mix of original and non-original content. “Medium” is also an open platform. Which makes it different from most premium subscription products — except Spotify and other music services. Anyone can upload a post and possibly receive a fee for her work.
Let me now dissect the various aspects of the "Medium" model. Many of these are, when taken on their own, not unique to that model. But their combination creates an effective and original formula.
We offer a lot for a little
Raphael portrays Pythagoras totally absorbed in writing in a large tome while a young man, who turns his gaze towards the bystanders because he is engaged in some conversation, holds a tablet with cryptic content.
I am a big believer in bundles and I am convinced that packs are an important part of the future of content monetization. That doesn't mean that there will be no individual memberships, advocacy, or other models that work — which help serve the cause well. That doesn't mean either that writers and editors won't be paid well.
“Medium” offers one of the largest original content packages of its kind, so it's a great investment for readers. And it is certainly also the easiest way to directly compensate writing, with the consequence that we could have a significant growth of people who decide to write for "Medium"
We welcome stories and ideas from wherever they come from
I often speak of "Medium" as a system for moving ideas between brains. One could say the same thing about most of the internet, but “Medium” specializes in ideas that require some space and reflection or, as we also like to say, “smart thinking on things that matter). That's always been the point. And if that's the point, why limit the source of intelligent thought to those you work with or already know?
Every week more than 50.000 writers publish a piece in "Medium". They are politicians, professors, storytellers, experts in some field and people who have never heard of them. The best of these stories contain knowledge and insights that can't be found anywhere else. We are proud to offer a level playing field to these diverse voices who come from all over the world and want to be heard. By curating and organizing these stories, we build the equivalent of a publication that contains more ideas and talent than any other and is constantly growing.
As far as the business model is concerned, a subset of the stories published on “Medium” are behind the paywall and contribute to our subscription program. Our Partner Program is designed to accommodate writers and publishers who want to get paid for their work.
Our editorial team commissions original stories and promotes the best ones
Raphael presents Archimedes bent over a tablet on which he has traced geometric shapes with a compass. He looks like Donato Bramante, the great master of proportions and geometry in architecture.
We have no writers on our staff and have no plans to add any (except for marketing). However, we have a growing editorial team that is commissioning world-class articles from professional journalists and authors. The team is also collaborating with some of the world's most influential writers on ambitious projects (like the one we just did with Roxane Gay).
We also discovered that many great writers — especially people who are experts in their field — are already writing in "Medium." Since a few minor editorial tweaks — a better title, a few sharp images, a style tweak — can help stories reach even more people, we're partnering with authors to take their work to the next level and help it get the audience it deserves. This is a very effective way to have quality stories, more professional stories.
We work with publishers on and off the platform
Our goal is to offer the best choice of intelligent stories. We are not interested in the news. To do this, we need to go beyond what our editorial team and writers spontaneously create on the platform and collaborate with other publishers. This happens in two ways.
First, there are hundreds of small publishers making original work. Some of these are already in our Partner Program. Which means they post their stories behind our paywall and get paid. We work with some of these publishers on original projects (like the big series on California politics).
Secondly, we license content from publications that are not in our Partner Program. In this way, we give our readers a handpicked selection of excellent stories that can be read in our ad-free environment.
We use personalization to offer the best to every reader
Finally, a key element of our model — and a differentiator for us — is customization. We serve a wide range of interests — and we serve many of those interests in depth. We collect data — both explicit data (which we get when readers choose specific topics and certain writers) and implicit data (which we get from reading choices) – in order to suggest stories we think audiences might be interested in.
Unlike the vast majority of publishers, we never sell data to third parties or rent out the reader business to build advertising.
Plus, unlike how most of the internet works, we don't just feature the most recent activity. People come to “Medium” to seek reflection on the things they care about. If the interest is, for example, entrepreneurship or social relationships, it is very unlikely that the best thing to read is the one published in the last 48 hours. But most of the Internet treats anything that isn't new like bad fruit. This is a huge detriment to readers and writers. It encourages people to spend their time on novelty rather than value, and discourages creatives from focusing on activities of lasting value.
We solved this problem by proposing stories based on their actual relevance, not their publication date. Some topics need more updating than others, but getting older stories on feeds is because they've stood the test of time.
A great advantage of this choice is that "Medium" and the authors who invest in their work can amortize it over a period of time longer than one day. It also means that we can have an ever-growing library of stories that subscribers can always have access to (thereby making their subscription a better deal with each passing day). This is one of the main reasons subscriber growth is soaring — and we're only scratching the surface.
This is how “Medium Today” works. And it's working fine. One thing I haven't mentioned is that all of “Medium's” business is growing, not just the number of subscriptions. We don't use the latter as the only metric, but we are often asked for comparison purposes. We reached 80 million unique visitors in the last 30 days. With these basic mechanisms in place, we can continue to grow and invest, which will allow us to do a better job of serving readers and writers.
Improve quality and relevance
Raphael portrays the philosopher Diogenes, founder of the so-called Cynic school, with considerable prominence. He places it in an absolutely central position, seated on the steps, half-naked and in hermitic isolation from the spirit of conversation that characterizes the painting.
Our most important task is to offer readers great stories. And we have great stories. We also have stories that aren't quite as great. And we don't always manage to bring out the best ones. We are obsessed with bringing the best quality things to people's attention — just as each person really wants to find. We know that there is a way to achieve this intention.
One of the big lessons we learned last year is that it is possible to algorithmically measure and optimize engagement, just as all advertising platforms do. But it is not, however, the same thing as the value of the user, which is very difficult to measure and to optimize algorithmically.
Another way to accomplish this is that we can use algorithms to figure out which stories will get more readers, but we still need human judgment to really know if they're really good (accurate, useful, well written, not just marketing masquerading as stories… ). We want to promote quality. Therefore, we are doubling down on the amount of curation people do. We're also restructuring the algorithmic part of our recommendation systems, to give readers more of what they want and less of what they don't.
An increasingly simple, direct and beautiful user experience
It's been a while since we seriously overhauled the design of “Medium”, from the UI, to the app and the underlying code. We will be doing some major remodeling over the next few months. We will also be overhauling some parts of our technical infrastructure to make the site faster (and, for nerds, faster to develop).
This should be of minor interest to the reader unless he's discriminating on the basis of speed and efficiency OR, unless he's an engineer or developer who wants to help us.
As our subscriber base grows, so will our content budget. We'll continue to invest in the ways we've already tried: through the Partner Program, by directly commissioning stories, or through partnerships with publishers. But in any case, we will try to make the quality higher and higher.
Looking a little further
These characters are chubby, ruddy and sated. with a crown of vine leaves that surrounds its head, it is difficult to identify. Some see the representation of Epicurus. Undoubtedly it symbolizes the materialistic tendency of philosophy.
I want to mention two more goals that we have on the horizon. They are not yet fully defined, but we have set ourselves the goal of achieving them in a reasonable time:
? Collaboration Tools: Since the early days of “Medium,” we've been convinced that people, together, create better things than they can do alone. And to some extent we checked that, but now we want to do much more. Also due to the fact that the published stories are collective works. The publishing process could be significantly improved by the collaboration between the editorial structure and the authors.
? Audio: We see audio as a highly complementary format for sharing the types of stories that “Medium” prides itself on. Last year we started adding audio narration to some of our best stories. Audio has remained a minor feature though, but it is increasing in popularity and there is a lot of work still to be done on content that we would like people to hear as well.
It has been a hectic year for "Medium", full of growth and teachings. I'm fortunate to work with a team who are committed to doing things right and doing them right. We are very confident about the future.
If you are a writer or editor who would like to collaborate with us, please contact us. If you are an engineer, designer or developer who would like to work with us, please contact us.
How Medium works with authors
By Siobhan O'Connor
How the editorial team works
As many of you have noted, we have developed a team of editors and curators within Medium over the past few months. This is very important. Our goal is simple: to bring ever better stories in front of our readers and especially our subscribers.
Authors have different motivations, so we work with them in different ways. Some writers want to work with an editor, some don't. Some want to reach as many people as possible, others want to reach a targeted and niche audience or their industry peers. Some, but not all, want to earn money from their work.
So our editorial team is versatile and diverse. Some in our group are tasked with commissioning stories. We have columnists writing signature pieces, like feminist writer Jessica Valenti, and technologist and mass media scientist Douglas Rushkoff. We also commission reports, essays, insights and opinions. We just released an entire book. Finally, we really like the “Medium” collections; they have an inherent logic that is interesting to readers (and they're also fun for editors to piece together). You can find them here.
Medium's business model is designed to serve writers and readers — that's all.
Beyond the posts
In the "Medium" magazine, launched in June 2018, there is a new theme every month — such as "The future of man" in the month of July and "Journey into power" in the month of October — we publish articles by journalists and stories of writers we admire. We have also created thematic collections, such as “The Crypto Collection”, “On the threshold of adulthood”, or “The art of programming”. Many of these collections contain both specially commissioned stories and stories published on the platform (including those by writers who self-publish on "Medium").
One of the most exciting aspects of our publishing business is the growing team of editors dedicated to scouring the self-written stories on “Medium” every day to find the most interesting and relevant entries to share with readers. When we find stories that convince us, which happens very often - many times every day - we reach directly to their author.
We take care of your piece at various levels, in addition to providing a copyediting and production support service, we take care of promoting it. Many of these stories are also featured on the home page and in the app or included in thematic collections, along with the other stories commissioned by the editorial team.
Some of these independent writers are part of the Partner Program, which anyone can join, and when they do, they can be compensated based on the relevance of their work. (What's especially cool about the Partner Program is that authors can keep making money on a story as long as members stay interested in it—much like royalties.) There are tens of thousands of people in the Partner Program and are working directly with an ever-growing number of authors.
Finally, while browsing Medium, you may also have noticed excerpts from books. We're excited about this initiative and have a full-time editor who finds book novelties that we think our readers might enjoy. (He's also the editor of the book I mentioned above written by a former Google executive, whose work, while non-fiction, reads like a short story). We pay to license these tracks in the same way we pay for commissioned stories; we do not sell placement to publishers.
The business model of “Medium”
Before I wrap up: Medium's business model is designed to serve writers and readers — that's all. That's why we moved away from the advertising model, its annoying banners, invasive pop-ups, sponsored stories, self-playing videos, data trackers that follow you everywhere on the Internet. There's none of that on “Medium,” and that's because we don't accept advertising. Instead, we have a metered paywall and a subscription service, which costs $5 a month or $50 a year.
For those uninterested in industry jargon, here's how a metered paywall works: Anyone can read a certain number of articles each month for free; people who subscribe instead have full access to all content. For those who want to know more about our paywall, you can read a speech from our founder and CEO, Ev Williams, on why we launched this model.
In fact it is working very well. That's good news for authors, because as our business grows, so do the resources to better pay for their work. The editorial budget increases every month in relation to the increase in subscribers. Which is happening rapidly. We also spend a relatively small amount of resources buying articles from other publications that we offer to our ad-free subscribers. Syndicated and commissioned stories do not deduct the fund resources we use to pay Partner Program authors. The 2018 investment in content and authors totaled $5 million.
Medium was built around writers, and we believe it remains the best place on the Internet to write and read. Thanks for helping us make it the way it is.
Cover image: A detail of the great painting by Raphael, The School of Athens, Vatican Museums
