Medium can be an American on the internet publishing platform produced by Evan Williams and introduced in August 2012. It really is owned by A Medium Corporation.[2] The platform can be an example of social journalism, aquiring a hybrid collection of beginner and Expert men and women and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium,[three] and it is frequently regarded as a blog host.
Williams, Beforehand co-founding father of Blogger and Twitter,[four] originally created Medium as a means to publish writings and files extended than Twitter's one hundred forty-character (now 280-character) highest.
In March 2021, Medium announced a change in its publishing strategy and business enterprise product, lowering its personal publications and increasing aid of unbiased writers.[five]
Background
2012–2016
Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder and former CEO, established Medium to really encourage consumers to make posts longer when compared to the then a hundred and forty-character limit of Twitter. When it launched in 2012, Williams mentioned, "You will find been significantly less progress towards increasing the caliber of what's manufactured."[six]
By April 2013, Williams noted there were thirty entire-time employees engaged on the System,[7] including a vacancy for just a "Storyteller" position,[8] Which it had been using "ninety eight per cent" of his time.[7] By August, Williams reported which the web site was nonetheless compact, Despite the fact that he was nevertheless optimistic about it, expressing "We are attempting to make it as uncomplicated as you can for people who have considerate items to say".[nine]
Medium is focusing on optimizing some time site visitors spend looking at the positioning (1.five million hours in March 2015), versus maximizing the dimensions of its audience.[ten][11] In 2015, Williams criticized the standard World-wide-web site visitors metric of unique website visitors as "a extremely risky and meaningless variety for what we're seeking to do".[11] In accordance with the organization, as of May 2017, Medium.com experienced 60 million one of a kind month to month readers.[twelve]
Medium maintained an editorial Section staffed by Expert editors and writers, experienced numerous others signed on as contractors and served being a publisher for a number of publications. Subject operated from Medium Headquarters in San Francisco and was nominated for any 2015 Countrywide Magazine Award.[thirteen] In Could 2015, Medium made deep cuts to its editorial funds forcing layoffs at dozens of publications hosted around the System.[14] Various publications left the System.
In 2017, Medium introduced paywalled information accessible only to subscribers.[fifteen] In 2017, Medium began spending authors according to the amount customers expressed their appreciation for it via a like button which Each and every person could activate numerous periods.[16] The system for compensation was shortly adapted to also incorporate the amount of time viewers spent looking through, in addition to the usage of the like button.[seventeen]