Medium, the platform that provides a platform to individual writers and has launched its own online magazines in recent years, offered voluntary takeovers to all editors on Tuesday when it announced it was cutting back on its journalism.
During a monthly all-hands meeting via video conference, employees were also informed that Siobhan O’Connor, Vice President for Editorial Affairs since 2018, would be leaving the company.
Evan Williams, a Twitter co-founder who founded Medium in 2012, told staff in a long email after the meeting that Medium was making “some changes” to its publishing strategy. He said Medium would reduce the budget of the company-powered publications and redirect resources to support independent writers on the platform.
Medium has made an effort to gain a foothold with independent journalism. It started as a blogging platform that anyone could post on, with the aim of creating “a new model for media on the Internet”. In 2017, the company laid off a third of its employees – 50 employees – after Mr Williams decided to move away from ad-supported content. In 2019, the company stepped up its own journalistic efforts with the launch of OneZero, a tech and science publication, which was followed by others including GEN (Politics and Culture), Elemental (Health), and Zora (Women in Color).
“Our goal has never been to replicate the traditional publishing model as we’ve seen the challenges facing the industry,” Williams wrote in Tuesday’s email.
He said that Amplify, a program that offered writers on the editorial and promotion platform, worked well, but it had been less successful in commissioning stories from professional writers for Medium’s publications.
“To be clear, we had no illusion that these releases would pay for themselves in the short term,” he said. “The bet was we could develop these brands and they would develop loyal audiences that would grow the overall middle subscriber base. What happened, however, is that Medium’s subscriber base continued to grow while our publications audience did not. “
Some employees wept over the video call, including two people who were aware of the meeting and who were not authorized to speak publicly. Employees were told they didn’t have to take over the acquisitions, but that their jobs would most likely change if they stayed, people said.
Those who take advantage of the acquisitions will receive a five-month lump-sum salary and six months of healthcare benefits. The fate of the Medium publications was uncertain, and Mr Williams said in the email that “it would take a lot more experimentation to find out what role they play on the platform”.
A trade union action at Medium failed less than a month ago. The middle-class union has one vote less than a simple majority of workers required for union recognition, a March 1 statement said.
A spokeswoman for Medium said in a statement that the company “remains fully committed to the high quality editorial and open platform model that independent writers support”.
“The voluntary buyout reflects changes we are making to our editorial team to create a more flexible organization that focuses on both,” the statement said.
The spokeswoman said that after Ms. O’Connor’s departure, Medium’s content operation will be led by Jermaine Hall and Scott Lamb.
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