Medium Just Laid Off 50 Employees and Shut Down Offices in New York and D.C.

Medium founder and CEO Ev Williams disclosed today in a blog post that his four-and-a-half-year-old company is eliminating 50 jobs and shutting down offices in New York and Washington, D.C. In a philosophical letter to the public, he recounted how his team's ultimate goals had gotten off course thanks to the monetization model known as advertising.  "We set out to build a better publishing platform—one that allowed anyone to offer their stories and ideas to the world and that helped the great ones rise to the top," Williams wrote. "In 2016, we made big investments in teams and technology aimed at attracting and migrating commercial publishers to Medium. And in order to get these publishers paid, we built out and started selling our first ad products. This strategy worked in terms of driving growth, as well as improving the volume and consistency of great content." While it appears Medium is doing away with its sponsored posts ads product, he wrote that 2016 was his company's best year in terms of key metrics. For instance, published posts jumped roughly 300 percent year over year, and monthly visitors reportedly reached 60 million in December, representing a 140 percent year-over-year increase. Medium, a digital storytelling platform, has even attracted scores of public figures—most notably President Barack Obama—to get their messages out.  Meanwhile, publishers of all sizes have been able to try to make money off their Medium stories, which have been sponsored in... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'

[ AdWeek | 2017-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Behold! Someone Made An Employee Manual You'll Actually Want To Read

EF Labs takes a colorful page from children's book illustrations for its employee manual.The company employee manual: Just saying those words is enough to lull you into a boredom-induced coma. And the idea of actually reading the content within—likely drier than the paper it's printed on—is... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2015-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Pitch: 50 startups we put in the spotlight in 2014

Find your lost pet with the help of facial recognition. Your home security system gets smarter. Search for a home cleaner and instantly book an appointment. Meet 2014's newest tech ideas in our collection of stories from The Pitch, a weekly feature in the Silicon Valley Business Journal. The... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #reading pleasure #business model #facial recognition


Amazon launches 60-minute delivery service in New York

Amazon has launched a one-hour new delivery service in selected areas of Manhattan, New York, today (19th December), which it plans to expand in 2015. The service, called Prime Now, promises to deliver in one hour a range of more than 25,000 daily essentials, such as “paper towels, shampoo,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Compress CBR/CBZ comic files by 50 percent or more

Digital comics often come in the form of comic book archives, typically JPGs stored in a single archive file (cbz = zip, cbr = rar, and so on). You might think these simple compressed formats would already produce the smallest possible files, but no -- the free CbxConverter can resample images... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2014-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children's market explored at New York Children’s Book Summit

The first Nielsen Children’s Book Summit convened in New York on Friday (12th December) at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in midtown, saw over 150 participants attending the day-long meeting organized by Nielsen Book Americas SVP Jonathan Stolper and Bookigee’s Kristen McLean. They worked to be... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #kristen mclean #mcgraw-hill auditorium #book summit #nielsen children


Google News Spain to be shut down: what does it mean?

Google News will withdraw from Spain, after the government passed a law to charge aggregators for linking to news publishers. A tech lawyer answers the big questions Continue reading... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chris Hughes' New Republic Cuts Frequency, Moves to New York

The New Republic magazine, which reached its 100th anniversary last month, is reducing its frequency to 10 issues a year from 20, moving its headquarters to New York from Washington, D.C., and replacing its editor. Gabriel Snyder will assume the role of editor of chief, succeeding Frank Foer.Mr.... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #bloomberg media #media companies #100th anniversary #chris hughes #republic magazine


New York Times Buyout Requests Don't Meet Paper's Goal

At least 85 New York Times employees applied for voluntary buyouts by yesterday's deadline, falling short of the number the newspaper publisher said was needed to avoid firings, according to a union representative.Grant Glickson, the chairman of the New York Times unit of the Newspaper Guild of... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2014-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #fluctuate based #job cuts #digital businesses #forced cuts #newspaper guild


New York Times Deadline for 100 Buyouts Nears

A 5 p.m. deadline bore down on New York Times employees considering whether to accept buyout packages, a bid for the newspaper publisher to trim costs.The company has said there will be forced cuts if 100 jobs can't be eliminated through voluntary buyouts.Like many newspapers, the Times is... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2014-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #digital future #staff cuts #regulatory filing #print circulation #voluntary buyouts #forced cuts


Post office partnership trebles Amazon's UK collection points

Amazon has trebled its number of collection points for customers via a partnership with Royal Mail. The e-commerce giant revealed the link-up today ( 25th November), which has added an extra 10,500 collection points in post offices to its PickUp Location Programme in the UK, bringing its total... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Neil Gaiman, Daniel Handler team up to distribute books in New York City

The two handed out National Book Award nominees as well as their own books in advance of the NBAs ceremony. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jerry Jenkins Shuts Christian Writers Guild

Novelist Jerry Jenkins has shuttered the Christian Writers Guild, a writers education group he owns. Former CWG employees are gearing up to fill the void with a new company. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New York Magazine digs into Hawaii media owner Pierre Omidyar, Civil Beat digs on buying nice things

New York Magazine has just come out with an in-depth profile of the intensely private Honolulu resident Pierre Omidyar. It quickly gets beyond the basics—"the programmer who created eBay, is one of America's richest men, a 47-year-old philanthropist intent on giving away the fortune he made when... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2014-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #personal journey #richest men #york magazine


PRH to close French and German offices

Penguin Random House UK is to close its Penguin Benelux and France and Penguin Germany offices, putting up to six roles at risk of redundancy, as part of a restructure of its international and group companies’ sales teams. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Half North Yorks libraries could face closure

Half of the libraries in North Yorkshire could face closure unless volunteers come forward to keep them open, the county council has warned. The push towards community-run libraries follows an original decision by the council in 2010, which saw nine of the council's 42 libraries run by... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #north yorkshire #face closure #county council #community-run libraries


Tribune Publishing Hires Michael Rooney as Chief Revenue Officer

Tribune Publishing, which owns 10 daily newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, has hired Michael Rooney as executive VP-chief revenue officer, the company plans to announce Monday. Mr. Rooney, who was chief revenue officer at The Wall Street Journal until last year,... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2014-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Profile Books moves offices

Profile Books and Serpent's Tail are moving to new premises near Pentonville Road in London. Profile and its imprints have been based at Exmouth Market for the past seven years, but will now move to new office space in Holford Yard, just off Pentonville Road, between Kings Cross St Pancras and... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Watch time at YouTube 'growing 50% a year'

Publishers who do not have a strategy related to YouTube are missing an opportunity, publicists and marketeers were told at a YouTube conference held yesterday (27th October) in association with The Bookseller. The event, held at the YouTube offices in St Giles High Street, and aimed at giving... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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International New York Times Enters Publishing Agreement with Republica in Nepal

The New York Times Company today announced a new publishing agreement between the International New York Times (INYT) and Republica that will create a combined print edition in Nepal. The new product, in which each publication will have a distinct s ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2014-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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No Shortage of Kids' Comics at New York Comic Con

Remember when comics grew up and got serious? Publishers have come full circle and now cater to young readers with new comics and graphic novels and tie-ins to old favorites. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #graphic novels #young readers #full circle