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Key links:
Primary website:
https://medium.com
Primary Twitter:
@Medium

Editor’s Note: Encyclo has not been regularly updated since August 2014, so information posted here is likely to be out of date and may be no longer accurate. It’s best used as a snapshot of the media landscape at that point in time.

Medium is a public blogging platform designed by Twitter founder Evan Williams and Obvious to encourage reader-writer collaboration. Medium users can write, comment, and contribute to posts, organize collections of content, or simply read what others have posted. The site is designed to be complementary to Twitter, and only those with a Twitter account can join.

The beta version of Medium debuted in August 2012, and its most striking feature is its simplicity. It purposely elides plug-ins and sidebars, and as Williams’ introductory note states, “there is nothing to set up or customize.” With ample white space, a curated home page of the best — not the most recent — content, and a built-in pre-publish collaboration tool, the goal of Medium is to reinvent how prose is composed and experienced online. Observers have questioned the purpose of Medium, debating whether it’s intended to be similar to a curated magazine, a more open blogging platform or something in between. Williams has described Medium as both a platform for individuals to publish and a publisher itself.

The Medium team is composed of alumni from past Obvious ventures, including Twitter, Odeo, and Blogger. It has mostly been self-funded, but raised its first outside capital – $25 million – in 2014. On occasion, its editorial team commissions posts and pays authors for contributing, and they also accept pitches from experienced journalists for investigative pieces. It has been criticized by some writers for its pay-per-click policy. In 2013, Medium opened access to everyone.

Medium bought the science journalism startup Matter in 2013 and relaunched it in 2014 as an online magazine. It hired tech writer Steven Levy from Wired in 2014. It also planned to launch a music magazine later that year.

Obvious has also partnered with Branch, a content-sharing venture designed by Josh Miller, Cemre Güngöre, and Hursh Agrawal that came out of beta in August 2012. Originally called Roundtable, Branch aims to incubate “high quality public discourse” by allowing users to “host” discussions that they can invite their friends to join. Branch is also behind Potluck, a link-sharing platform. Both were bought by Facebook in 2014.

Peers, allies, & competitors:
Twitter, Wordpress, Tumblr, Instapaper, Quora
Recent Nieman Lab coverage:
Aug. 3, 2023 / Laura Hazard Owen
The BBC launches its own Mastodon server — The BBC has set up an experimental Mastodon server that, for now, hosts a handful of BBC accounts: @BBCRD, @BBC5Live, @BBCRadio4, @BBC_News_Labs, @BBCTaster, and @Connected_Studio. The server — which won’t host o...
Aug. 31, 2022 / Casey Newton
Medium’s new CEO on the company’s journalism mistakes, bundle economics, and life after Ev Williams — Sometimes as a reporter you write a piece that is critical of a company and the company decides not to talk to you again for a long while, or ever again. Other times you write a critical piece and the CEO sends you a not...
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The long, complicated, and extremely frustrating history of Medium, 2012–present — Fool me once, shame on you. Fool you twice, shame on me. Fool me seven times, well…how much money do you have, again? Less than a year after Medium abruptly canceled the membership programs of its remaining publish...
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So some people will pay for a subscription to a news site. How about two? Three? — The path forward for premium media is seemingly clear: Put up a paywall. Digital advertising is a duopoly-dominated mess; any print or broadcast cross-subsidy you might have is declining at one speed or another. Your loy...
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Recently around the web, from Mediagazer:

Primary author: Linda Kinstler. Main text last updated: August 21, 2014.
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