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 ]
News tagged with: #generate revenue

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Digital sales up 50% at CUP

A 50% year-on-year increase in digital sales at Cambridge University Press contributed to a... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital sales


Ad revenue falls again at The New York Times Co.

Ad revenue at The New York Times Co. declined 8.9% in the third quarter from the quarter a year earlier as print ad revenue dropped 10.9% and digital ad revenue slipped 2.2%, the company said today. Circulation revenue, however, increased 7.4% on the strength of growing digital subscriptions and... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2012-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital subscribers #operating profit


How Joanna Coles Nabbed Cosmo's Corner Office

“Growing up, Cosmo was my lifeline to the world,” says Joanna Coles, the freshly installed editor-in-chief of the largest women’s magazine. “A world that I wanted to be in but couldn’t get to yet.” Piloting a global magazine, married to a notable author, throwing "dream" dinner parties, and... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2012-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #big picture #pay attention


New York mag tries Manhattan hand-delivery

New York magazine is trying to remedy rising postal costs and slower postal deliveries by distributing many subscriber copies by hand—at least for Manhattan subscribers with doormen. After a test than began in May, sparked by concerns that post-office cutbacks would only continue to worsen, New... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2012-09-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post office #verified circulation #audit bureau #bloomberg businessweek


Twitter Co-Founders' New Site, Medium, Will Open to Public in New Year

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams shares more details about his new publishing platform. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2012-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publishing platform


Waterstones delays head office move

Waterstones is to delay its head office move from Brentford to its flagship London Piccadilly... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New York bookshop launches rescue mission to digitize out-of-print sci-fi titles

Singularity & Co aims to rescue near-extinct 20th century sci-fi titles to ensure they still exist in the next one. Established from a Kickstarter campaign, the small team has already digitized and published A Plunge Into Space and The Torch, both with new cover art, while its third title... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2012-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #cover art #ars technica #reviving interest #email thiscomments


Barnsley: digital 50% of revenue in 18 months

HarperCollins UK c.e.o. Victoria Barnsley has predicted that half her company’s revenue... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #victoria barnsley #harpercollins uk


News Corp parts ways with chief digital officer Jonathan Miller

News Corporation is parting company with chief digital officer Jonathan Miller at the end of September, ahead of the separation of its publishing and entertainment business. Continue reading at Media Week

[ Media Week | 2012-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #news corporation #entertainment business


Twitter founders create Branch and Medium to keep the conversations, collections flowing

If you've ever been so embroiled in a chat or sharing splurge that you've been told to "take it off of Twitter," you now can -- sort of. Twitter co-creators Biz Stone and Ev Williams have launched Branch and Medium, two companion services that (naturally) use a Twitter sign-in but narrow the... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2012-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #static collection #collaborative efforts


Twitter Cofounders Unveil Medium, A Publishing Platform That Feels Like Tumblr And Looks Like Pinterest

Twitter cofounders Biz Stone and Evan Williams today offered a preview of Medium, their new publishing platform. Medium is at heart a blogging service, although right now it's only open to a select few authors. The posts are organized into "collections" that use different layouts depending on... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2012-08-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #make money #blogging platform


At 50, MIT Press Looks Forward

At a time when some university presses have cut back their publishing program or changed course, the MIT Press, which celebrated its first 50 years this spring, continues to look to the future—“relentlessly,” according to editorial director Gita Manaktala. “The retrospective glance doesn’t come... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #mit press #university presses #cut back #publishing program


Head office reshuffle at Waterstones

Waterstones has made further changes to its head office personnel, with Neil Best taking up the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette UK opens office in Hong Kong

Hachette UK is opening a sales and marketing office in Hong Kong, with Paul Kenny [pictured]... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #hong kong #hachette uk #marketing office


Flipboard Rival: New York Times Deal is Good News for the Media Industry

Publishing giants The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal firmed up exclusive deals with Flipboard and Pulse earlier in the week for exclusive content to go out to these third-party mobile apps, but as one Flipboard rival explains, this news c ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #media industry #exclusive content


Market slips despite 50 Shades

E L James' Fifty Shades trilogy has once again shattered records, as The Bookseller reported... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bookseller reported


The New York Times Gets All The News That's Fit to Print – All of It – Into Flipboard

It's the first time you can read all of the Times on a site or app not owned by the Times. And it's the first time Flipboard has gotten a big publisher to hand over all its content. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2012-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #big publisher


Penguin slinks back into ebook lending for New York City libraries, with a possible catch

You might say Penguin has had a rocky relationship with libraries. That looks to be on the tentative mend, as the publisher and 3M have together cut deals with the Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library to bring Penguin's ebook catalog back as part of a test program. Under the terms... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2012-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book publisher #ebook lending #rocky relationship #cut deals


Media Decoder Blog: From Penguin, a Plan to Make Its E-Books Available in New York City Libraries

The publisher, in conjunction with city libraries and 3M, will make its books available in e-format, though they will not be available immediately after release. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2012-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin returns its ebooks to New York libraries

After yanking their ebook titles from libraries last year, Penguin is launching an ebook pilot program for libraries in New York. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ebook titles