Medium Isn’t Dying — It Has Just Acquired Design Platform Projector
With this powerful merger Medium CEO, Ev Williams wants to bring Medium to the next level — Quick FAQ inside.
Medium CEO Ev Williams just announced the acquisition of the Multimedia Design platform Projector.
I truly look forward to integrating our teams and expertise to bring Medium to the next level.
In this article, you’ll find answers to all your questions in one place.
FAQ
What’s Projector?
Projector is a creative platform that empowers every professional with the skills needed to captivate their audience. LinkedIn
In 2017, a small team inside a small office on Howard Street in San Francisco conceived the original idea for Projector. Trevor O'Brien
- Projector was launched in 2020, in the early days of the pandemic
- 650 Mission St, San Francisco, California 94105, US
- it’s a collaborative platform used for presentations to social media stories to newsletter graphics
- it helps people turn their ideas into flexible, multimedia stories that can be published anywhere
They’ve built a strong following with thousands of creators big and small. Ev Williams
Is projector a startup?
Yes, according to TechCrunch it’s a small startup.
- 100,000 people use Projector
- it raised $23 million over three funding rounds
Why did Medium buy Projector?
- to innovate on the core Medium experience
- build amazing tools for creators
- Projector’s ethos (=empowering people to share ideas and stories through elegant tools) is very in line with Medium’s (= a place where ideas take shape, take off, and spark powerful conversations) as Ev Williams states
- technologies are complementary
Who’s part of the Projector team?
With the Projector team come two experienced product and engineering leaders. Ev Williams
Trevor O’Brien, co-founder, and CEO of Projector
- joined Medium as Chief Product Officer (Medium didn’t have a CPO before)
- previously led product teams at Coda, Twitter, and YouTube
- will have a seat on Medium’s board of directors
Here’s Trevor’s statement on the acquisition.
Luke Millar, co-founder and VP of Engineering at Projector
- he has led engineering teams at Twitter, Shift, and Microsoft.
- will join Medium as VP of Engineering
Besides these two leaders, there are eleven employees in the team too, according to TechCrunch.
Based on Crunchbase, here are three employees.
Eric Marantette, Software Engineer
Adrian Castillejos, Software Engineer
and finally a woman in tech and marketing (like me):
Hayley Decker, Marketing and Brand Manager
Hayley thanked Medium and Lauren Newton, Head of People at Medium, already for a warm welcome via LinkedIn.
What happens once the onboarding of the 13 team members is complete?
The entire team will join Medium.
The company Projector won’t be included in the Medium world.
Its service will be discontinued on March 8, 2022.
(…) at which point we will be sunsetting the platform. Ev Williams
We will continue to offer customer support until that time, and our team will be ready to assist in helping Projector creators export their data and stories. Trevor O'Brien
Medium’s Future is expanding beyond words
As announced, Medium wants:
- to innovate on the core Medium experience
- build amazing tools for creators
…leveraging Projector technologies and expertise to build world-class creator tools and reader experiences trevor o’ brien said to TechCrunch
How the future will actually look like is unclear.
However, I have an idea!
Who am I?
- I’m a marketing and product manager with around 15 years of experience.
- I’m one of Medium’s Top 1,000 writers and one of Medium’s Top 5 Writer’s in #Writing.
- I love Medium and writing about this inspiring platform.
In my opinion, there are a few ways how the future of Medium (as a writing platform and product) could like in regard to the relational model:
- Customization: I’d like to imagine that Medium could give me more (elegant) design options and features in the content management system to customize my site, my pub’s newsletter, and my posts.
- Real-time collaboration and visual communications: Since Projector offers real-time collaboration, I could imagine working together with the (new) writers from my Online Writing Kickstarter Bootcamp. Not just sharing a friend link and then commenting via our Slack group as Courtney Simms did today. This could feel a bit like the future of the internet — the metaverse.
- Multimedia: I already love to see how Ev Williams and his team bring Medium to the next level in regard to multimedia content. A lot of writers are on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
As TechCrunch says:
Now, let’s see if Medium expands beyond words with the same design-focused approach for multimedia content.
Final Takeaways
I get so many posts in my feed saying Medium is dying.
Some are worried. Some think about leaving Medium. Some even leave Medium.
People have been complaining about Medium’s death for as long as I’ve been writing here (since December 2020 and probably earlier).
For me, this acquisition is a positive sign.
I want to write on Medium and I want to be part of the next level. I think Medium is the best place to write online.
As I said several times before, Medium isn’t dying. It’s a powerful writing platform that is constantly changing.
Let’s conclude with the words of my bootcamper Trisha Dunbar:
I really look forward to reading more updates about this shortly and seeing the direction this will go.
Do you want to be part of the next level?
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