Medium’s Long Game

My thoughts on Medium’s acquisition of Glose

I read Sandee Roston’s article about Medium’s acquisition of Glose (below)

and decided to do some further reading to help me better understand Medium’s long term plan. I am curious to know how the acquisition will benefit readers and writers on the platform.

So, What is Glose?

Glose is a social reading platform where readers can discover, read, and highlight thousands of books and engage other readers. Readers can read, buy books, and share notes and highlights with friends. The keyword is social because on Glose you do not only have access to books but an entire community committed to reading and discussions on books easily accessible on any device. A major attraction is being able to share your favorite quotes and highlights with your network on social media. Glose boasts an offering of over a million titles from some of the world’s largest publishers on almost any topic. You can access business books, academic books, fiction, non-fiction and so much more.

Why now?

Both companies have similar goals which are to encourage people to read and read more and pay for more content. Both companies seek to make the reading experience better and more social; explore and seamlessly share ideas and track experiences.

It is expected that this partnership will expand authors' readership base by bringing their work to a larger audience. Medium’s 60 million-strong user base and Glose’s 1 million (along with its offering of books from 20,000 major publishers) creates mind-boggling opportunities.

Ev Williams, CEO of Medium told CNN Business that his aim is to engage people, pull them in and get them feeling that reward and feedback cycle for spending time on reading, writing, and thoughtful content.

Nicolas Princen, CEO of Glose in his interview with CNN Business explains that the vision is to go from one experience to the next. His words ‘You can read an article and then just one-click purchase a book that connects to that content if you want to go deeper’.

This joint partnership is expected to get the world reading, buying books, discussing books, and blogging about books among other things. This will further cement Medium’s position as a clear leader in the online publishing, blogging, and social journalism space.

Benefits And Advantages

It is not yet clear what the exact details of the integration will look like but this much is certain — this partnership opens up a world of possibilities to Medium and its users. Some of the obvious benefits include:

• Attracting readers and writers to the platform — Readers have access to content from Medium writers and publications as well Glose’s massive digital book store. Writers can tap into this vast readership base and gain greater visibility
• You enjoy a seamless experience — You can read on a topic, look for a book or books on that and similar topics and buy the book if you so choose all without leaving the platform
• Published writers and authors will enjoy the unique opportunity of having their content (Medium articles) and books all on the same platform — This means having their content in one location.
• Readers gain immensely from having their favorite authors work all in one place — They can also discover new authors and writers which greatly enhances the reading experience
• Readers and writers can highlight and share interesting, intriguing, or captivating aspects of writers work with their social media network — Writers can write blog posts or spark discussions on those topics
• This expected influx of writers and readers would mean extra income for Medium through subscription fees

Matters Arising

There are some niggling issues that will need to be ironed out eventually. These include:

• The fact that purchases of ebooks will attract a separate charge even on the same platform —It appears that ebook purchases will not be covered in subscription fees
• Possibilities for aspiring authors — It is not yet clear how or if aspiring authors and writers will have access to major publishers and lucrative publishing deals. At the moment, Glose has an expansive library of digital books from such publishers but it is not clear if they offer publishing deals to authors and writers on the platform
• Free ebooks — It is not clear if any ebooks will be free or available to borrow for a fee (a digital library) should readers choose to borrow rather than buy

Conclusion:

The acquisition of Glose by Medium has the potential of being a game-changer in the online publishing space. I believe there will be great opportunities and benefits for writers, readers, and authors which I believe Medium will communicate in detail in due course. However, readers seem to be the major beneficiaries at the moment.

Kindly note that the views expressed above are mine and solely for information and understanding