Summary

Medium's CEO, Ev Williams, has announced a shift in focus away from publications and towards individual writers, marking a significant change in the platform's strategy.

Abstract

In a recent announcement, Medium CEO Ev Williams has signaled a pivot in the company's strategy, downplaying the role of publications on the platform. Despite previous investments in launching seven magazine-style publications and a large editorial team, Williams has acknowledged that the growth of these publications has not kept pace with the overall growth of Medium subscribers. The economic viability of publications has been called into question, with a low hit rate for stellar stories and insufficient returns. As a result, Medium will reduce resources for its own publications, instead prioritizing support for independent writers. This includes offering deals, editing, and feedback to help writers improve their storytelling and reach a wider audience. While this shift may negatively impact many publications, community-driven and niche publications are expected to continue thriving by offering targeted content to loyal readers.

Opinions

The author believes that writers are the ultimate winners from this update, as Medium will now focus on supporting individual voices rather than publications.
Publications, especially those run by Medium, are seen as the losers, with resources and staff expected to be cut.
The author suggests that the traditional editorial model, where writers are commissioned to write for publications, is becoming less effective on Medium.
It is opinioned that Medium's decision to de-emphasize publications will affect all publications on the platform, not just those run by Medium.
The author predicts that publications centered around community and those with a strong niche focus will survive and succeed despite the changes.
The author expresses optimism that the shift will lead to more opportunities for writers to have their stories seen by a larger audience, with the quality and standards of each piece becoming more important than publication affiliation.

Medium Publications Are Dead

Ev William’s recent update makes writers the ultimate winners

Publications are no longer going to matter on Medium.

Ev Williams, the CEO of Medium, just released a statement on March 24th, 2021 that essentially says that publications are no longer a priority for the company.

There are clear winners and losers here. Writers are the ultimate winners and publications are the ultimate losers. In my opinion, there are a couple of kinds of publications that will still thrive in the future.

I’m referring to the post that Ev Williams released about the Medium editorial team update which you can read here in its entirety.

Specifically, I’m referring to this section of his post:

“To be clear, we had no illusion these publications were going to pay for themselves in the short term. The bet was that we could develop these brands, and they would develop loyal audiences that would grow the overall Medium subscriber base. What’s happened, though, is the Medium subscriber base has continued to grow, while our publication’s audiences haven’t.”

What Ev is saying in this editorial team update

The Medium CEO is sharing that publications were the way the company thought they wanted to organize Medium and was the place that it was putting resources into. A couple of years ago, the Medium team launched seven magazine-style publications within 9 months with a team of nearly 80 staff members. These publications performed well and served the reading community well during pandemic times and when issues of race were front and center during the summer of 2020.

Ev believes the traditional editorial model where commissioned writers would write for publications are working “less well” for Medium. He writes that the returns are low and publications are not viable economically:

“We have published many stellar stories that found a wide audience and more than paid for themselves. But our hit rate has been low, and we’re not near where we need to be to make it work economically.”

He writes that while the Medium subscriber base continues to grow, the publication’s audiences have not grown. Ev thus has made an economic decision to not grow Medium publications and start cutting the resources the organization has been putting into publications.

Who are the winners and losers of this update

Medium publications are the clear losers of this update. The company is going to be cutting resources and staff from the Medium-run publications but if you look at what Ev’s really saying, he’s giving up on publications altogether. He doesn’t think people are loyal to publications and publications no longer hold people’s trust.

My take on this update is that most publications are going to lose because of this update. The company doesn’t see the value of publications so they’re not going to give posts that show up in a publication any more weight than a post that doesn’t show up in a publication. Not only are Medium publications the loser but I believe ALL publications are going to be affected by this. There is little incentive for Medium to give publications any additional credibility or lift when it comes to sharing their content.

Ultimately, the winners from this update seem to be writers. Here’s what Ev writes:

“For the foreseeable future, we will focus that talent on supporting independent voices on our platform. This means identifying writers — both already on Medium and not — and offering them deals, support, editing, and feedback to help them tell great stories and find their audience.”

It seems like the company is going to help writers and independent voices get better with their writing and help individual writers do better on the platform. This should be good news for most of us who felt like publications were not getting us very far. Our views and earnings will be based more on each piece’s quality and standards, rather than if it shows up in a publication.

Some publications will still succeed

I don’t believe that all publications are going to die. I believe there are two kinds of publications that are going to succeed. One, publications that are based on community and relationships, like Illumination, will succeed. People come to these publications to find new writers, interesting points of view and to support each other.

Also, I believe that niche publications that focus strongly on one topic will succeed. Publications that focus only on writing, only on relationships, only on spirituality, only on poetry will succeed. The reason for this is I believe those readers want to read only about those topics and will continue to keep coming back to those publications that continue to serve them stories about that one topic they’re interested in.

While publications won’t grow as much or won’t have as much support from Medium, select and targeted niche publications, in my opinion, will still grow and succeed.

In conclusion

Medium is a platform that continues to change over time. Every time a change is made, some people win and some lose.

If you were never a fan of big publications to start, the good news is that they are not going to matter as much. All publications are not going to matter as much with these recent updates by the company.

Writers and individual stories are going to matter more. Medium wants to lift writers and their stories up rather than the publications that host these stories. I believe writers are going to have more opportunities to see their stories do well and have their stories seen by more people. Your story showing up in a top publication will have less effect going forward. Your views and reads will matter less because of where you published it.

Some community-based publications and niche-publications will still succeed because they will have something of value to offer their readers. Medium is a dynamic and changing environment. Let’s see what these changes do for all of us in the coming months.

What are your take on these changes? How do you feel these changes will change the Medium experience. Please leave me a comment below so we can discuss it.

*If you enjoyed this post, sign up here to get more helpful updates from Inner Motivation For Writers.