(From the 12/23/2015 podcast on recode.net, link here.)
Ev started Medium because he believes content will be distributed primarily through 3 or 4 aggregation sites–one of which he hopes is Medium
Ev thinks the roll of publishers is going to change dramatically
- Their role as distributors is going to continue shrinking
- So they need to focus on producing and packaging quality content
- Their example: The NYTimes published a big takedown piece on Amazon last summer; months later, Amazon responded on Medium; the Times then responded back on Medium rather than on their site
- Ev says 70% of an article’s readers come via social links but that 30% come from Medium itself
- Corporations generally have poorly visited sites, Medium can get their message out more effectively
- How will Medium make money? Ev suggests Medium will establish some form of payments to professional content creators though revenue sharing etc
Ev focused on getting the technology right on Medium from the beginning–remember your horror in seeing the Twitter fail whale?
About Ev (from Wikipedia): Evan Clark Williams is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur who has founded several Internet companies, including Medium. Williams was previously Chairman and CEO of Twitter, one of the internet’s top ten websites.
