New Medium CEO Announces the Company Lets Go of 29 Employees
Find out the reasons behind this decision.
On August 11th, Tony Stubblebine, recently appointed CEO of Medium, announced that the company is letting go of 29 employees.
These employees are part of the departments of:
- operations
- marketing
- design and
- creator relations
The decision to reduce the size of Medium staff is a difficult but necessary one for Medium’s future as a competitive company and it is driven by 2 factors:
1. Medium is going in the direction of a sharper focus on the needs of its readers and writers. As a result of years of experimenting, it’s putting in place a new strategy that will help the authors with tools and incentives.
When we experiment going forward, I’d like to see us experiment in partnership with our community. This is a change in strategy, and I believe we’ll be better positioned to support this change as a smaller, more focused team. (Tony Stubblebine)
2. As a secondary reason, following the cost-cutting trend of other companies, Medium is also conducting layoffs due to economic concerns.
Although it may come as a bit of a shock, this is not the first time Medium has fired a considerable chunk of its staff. At the beginning of 2017, the founder (and then CEO) of Medium, Ev Williams, announced the layoff of 50 people and the closing of New York and DC branches, also in the name of a new strategy and improved focus.
Onboard with Medium’s strategy to constantly experiment and renew, new CEO Tony Stubblebine has made a point of listening to what the writers have to say about the platform.
Formerly known and loved by everybody as Coach Tony, founder of the massively successful publication Better Humans, Tony announced his new position on July 12th of this year. Since then, he proved that he is not just a good listener but also a fast implementer of the writer’s requests.
In the 1 month since Tony became the new CEO, one of their requests had already been ticked off the list. Authors can now be tipped for their writing directly from Medium with the help of a new tipping button installed at the end of every article. The button is linked to a third party such as Ko-fi or PayPal.
While we can all appreciate being acknowledged and are hoping for even more new features that will respond to our requests, in the light of massive firing, there is always a concern, which Tony addresses at the end of his article:
I’m sure as well that this decision will make some feel uncertain about our future. I want to assure everyone that I feel nothing but optimism for the future of Medium. Medium has a very bright future and today’s decision leaves us in a stronger position to pursue it. (Tony Stubblebine)
What do you think about this? Are you concerned about the future of Medium or eager to see it unfold? Let me know in the comments.
PS: On a more personal note, while my heart goes out to the people who have to leave the company, we must all understand that Medium is a business and it does what it needs to do to ensure entrepreneurial success.
I appreciate the transparency and open communication and I’m sure it can’t be an easy day for either side.
I believe in experimenting and I see constant change as the one true key to constant growth. I’m looking forward to finding out more about this new strategy and seeing it in action.
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