I’m excited about the future of Medium

I’m the editor at ThinkGrowth.org, so this announcement is particularly relevant.

First, let me say how much my heart goes out to the Medium team. I “survived” a round of layoffs at a previous company and it’s rough.

Second, moving away from an ad dependent revenue model is IMO, a smart move. Ad revenue incentivizes writers who create for the maximum # of views. This is essentially what has created our current state — a glut of content on the web concomitant with a shocking shortage of content that delivers any actual value.

If Medium pursued the ad route, they would inevitably build an algorithm that surfaces the most clickable content–a state that is bad for ThinkGrowth.org as a B2B publisher, and also bad for the many writers who have found an audience on Medium even though they cover niche topics.

Publishing today is broken, and how Medium solves this problem could have meaningful impact on if/when/how publishing is fixed. That’s exciting stuff :)

If you read through the comments on Ev’s post, there are a lot of ideas. Brennan McEachran tossed out “Netflix for words”, Simone Stolzoff put together a great list of how other ad-rejecting-platforms have monetized, Brandon Gadoci shared some good ideas (editor as a platform, yes!), Shannon Clark shared some good ideas.

Here are a few of my own (all on the publication side):

• Invest in the interface between writers & publications: What if publications could request stories from people? What if publications could view stories in draft mode and “bid” on unpublished pieces?
• Fix commenting: The Medium community is still extremely civil, but one only needs to read comments all over the web to know it will not stay this way. What if users that lacked a good commenting track record had to pay to comment?
• Increase functionality: Ask any Medium writer and they will tell you, Medium analytics are the worst. I would happily pay for better data on my readers. Medium could also charge for the ability to insert custom CTAs, access visual templates, etc.

I’m incredibly excited to see how Medium moves forward. I LOVE the platform, I spend hours in it every single day, I believe in their mission to reinvent media and move thinking forward. Choosing to abandon the ad model is a bold move, it’s in direct contradiction to how other consumer platforms are monetizing, but it’s the right move.

I think this only signals positive things ahead for Medium’s future. I’m excited to continue working with the Medium and being a part of its future.