Medium Got a New CEO — Here Is What We Want Him to Know
Tony Stubblebine is the new CEO of Medium
Do you know Ev Williams is stepping down as the CEO of Medium?
In a recent post, Ev wrote, “In the next phase of Medium, I will still be involved, as chairman of the board. But I will no longer be running the company day-to-day. That honor will go to Tony Stubblebine.”
Medium’s Head of Comms, Sandee Roston, confirmed the same as she mentioned Tony Stubblebine is going to be the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, effective from July 20, 2022.
Wait! Tony Stubblebine!!!
The name sounds so familiar, right?
Who is Tony? And, most importantly, why Tony?
You guessed it right. We all know him as Coach Tony, the editor of Better Humans who served an advisory role at Medium for ten years.
Ev first worked with him nearly 17 years ago, when Tony was Vice President of Engineering at Odeo (now known as Twitter). He admires Tony a lot because instead of joining Twitter, he went on doing his own projects. He is currently the CEO of the world’s largest habit coaching platform, Coach.me.
But why did Ev choose Tony as the new CEO of Medium?
Ev says, “Tony is a builder, a writer, an open-minded thinker, and a keen businessperson.”
He believes that Tony has a clear point of view on how Medium can be better as he understands the network and creator’s needs better than anyone else.
“In thinking about who might replace me, Tony was one of the first people that came to mind. I then talked to a bunch of other people…and came back to Tony,” Ev explains.
He is confident that Medium will significantly benefit from Tony’s leadership.
Tony — the new CEO of Medium — wants to listen to you
Tony is very excited about this new role as he considers being on Meidum “the job of a lifetime.”
He says he wants to benefit both the authors and readers by doubling down the publishing tools and the quality of subscriptions. Moreover, he is keen to know what we think about this platform and what can be done to make it more impressive. He wants to listen to us.
“The first thing to know about me is that I place a tremendous value on listening and open discussion. Good thing Medium is the perfect platform for that. You will find me to be a very active participant in the community, as I have been from the start,” Tony explains.
He wants Medium to be a place for new ideas and constructive conversation.
What we (authors and readers) want from our new CEO
Our needs as authors and readers are quite simple. Here are they —
1. Spread our “quality stories” like wildfire
Medium now encourages writers to produce more garbage (mostly cheap listicles) on a daily basis instead of producing quality content. This is because — now it focuses on quantity, not quality. But this trend must be changed. Quality should come first.
2. Make “chosen for further distribution” effective
Sadly, the stories that get the ‘chosen for further distribution’ tag go nowhere. It’s very depressing. This needs some attention from the Medium team. Either vanish all chosen/curated tags or make them effective by reaching the stories to its readers.
3. Remove bots and spammers
We need Medium to be a place for real human interactions. We don’t want to be fooled by bots or some clever AI tricks. We want you to take a closer look and remove fake accounts, bots, and spammers.
4. Redesign the homepage
Most people would agree that we are experiencing the worst homepage for Medium. It literally sucks. 2019-Homepage was way better than what we are seeing now.
Here are a few things that I liked about the 2019 homepage:
- Visually clean and attractive (with image orientation, font size, format, etc.)
- Five to six stories instantly popped up while visiting the homepage
- A section that highlighted featured/trending stories (as far as I can remember)
- The top navigation bar sparked our curiosity to explore what’s happening in different areas (e.g., tech, culture, self, startup, politics, etc.)
What I don’t like about the current homepage:
- It doesn’t seem clean (too much stuff there)
- When you visit the homepage, only two stories manage to get your attention (unless you begin to scroll/click for more)
- “Your Topics” section on the top only keeps you in your own bubble (visually less enticing too)
- Too much personalized content. (If you read an article about a particular topic, the same type of content will start coming to the homepage day after day until you press the (-) button.)
- I think the current homepage doesn’t ignite creativity or curiosity in you.
5. Improve the Medium app
The Medium app is a pain in the ass. Maybe a thousand times, I installed it and then was forced to uninstall it to keep my sanity intact. What’s worse, you removed the app’s story writing and editing option. It would be great to have those features back.
6. Allow authors and readers to be a part of the changing process
I think it’s a great idea to include us (authors and readers) as a part of the changing process — instead of figuring out everything all by yourself.
I believe our coach Tony will make Medium a far better platform than it is now with his knowledge, experience, and vibrant leadership.
Congratulations, Tony Stubblebine!
We are very excited to experience a more inclusive and diverse Medium under your leadership.
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