5 ms·
Newly ex-Median here. This was not a huge surprise. On the surface, this is a change in product strategy. The underlying story is the company positioning itself
by herplederp 10y ago
Newly ex-Median here. This was not a huge surprise. On the surface, this is a change in product strategy. The underlying story is the company positioning itself so it can survive an adverse environment if it needs to. It's hard to fault managers for dealing with that potential (and its hard to deny that the next 2-4 years could be really bad). Hopefully not, but it would be malpractice not to prepare.
So better to focus resources now than be walking dead in a year or so, jettison unnecessary products/projects, and hope for the best. It's a great product, and with time and luck, they'll sort out a good business model, but like the rest of the publishing world, they're still sorting things out.
Despite being one of those made redundant, I enjoyed being there, and wish them the best. On that note, you should ask yourself if you are prepared for winter, because winter is coming.
- ivraatiems 10y agoWhat do you mean by an "adverse environment over the next 2-4 years"? Please be more explicit.
- herplederp 10y agoLocal picture: the revenue model for online publishing is still broken, Medium is in the publishing business. Big picture: Donald J Trump, and the potential to cause widespread disruption that benefits nobody. Hopefully that will not be the case, but if it is, money for startups with hazy revenue models will not be cheap. In either case, reducing your burn rate by $10M per year is a smart move.
- antisthenes 10y agoReally? Blaming Trump for a terrible business model? No matter how far you are in the SV bubble, even you must admit that was one hell of logical leap. > Hopefully that will not be the case, but if it is, money for startups with hazy revenue models will not be cheap. Sounds like a great thing to me.
- orf 10y ago> even you must admit that was one hell of logical leap. Yeah who does this ex-median think he is? It's not like he worked there.
- shard972 10y agoLike if the economy was tanking in the US and rallying in foreign markets you could fairly make the argument that a Trump administration could be very risky in the next few years. Putting it all in perspective though, to the extent it's a negative risk for SV based companies it's also a positive risk for things to be "disrupted".
- Noseshine 10y agoIf he knows how Trump has influence on Medium's business he didn't show it. I'm more than eager to hear that storyline. I would be interested in something more concrete than the numerous "the sky is falling" articles based 99% on the author's personal feelings and fantasies though. That obsession with Trump is a mania by now, that and "Russian hackers", a self-feeding frenzy.
- untog 10y agoThe OP didn't connect Trump with a bad business model, or with Medium at all actually. Big picture, Trump, and a Trump presidency, are a huge unknown. It's probably a matter of personal projection what you think the outcome will be, but it can hardly be dismissed out of hand. For example, do you think Trump, a hotel owner, will support legislation that favours AirBnB? It's not as if he is above petty payback on people he feels have wronged him. And of course there's a more general effect on the economy. Maybe he'll be great! Maybe he won't. You might think that's a good thing but you can hardly blame employees of vulnerable startups who would rather not lose their jobs.
- Noseshine 10y agoI don't see how anything "Trump" has anything to do with Medium and publishing on the Internet except by the most far-fetched and useless "everything is connected" kind of argument.
- Trundle 10y ago"I don't want to blame it all on 9/11, but it certainly didn't help"
- ConfuciusSay02 10y agoIf the new administration plans to rein in the stupidity of perpetual ZIRP/QE, then yes, there will be an impact on funding for startups with no revenue model. Everybody knows the current situation cannot last, and in fact much of financial industry does not want it to last (for good reason), and knows that the current system must be reformed. Framing this as a "hurrr Trump's gonna to cause widespread disruption that benefits nobody" makes you look very ignorant.
- stevejohnson 10y agoI believe this person is referring to the Republican-controlled US federal government and Trump presidency. (I'm just explaining, not making any value judgements.)
- paganel 10y agoNot the OP but I think the era of zero-interest money is behind us (even Germany posted a 1.7% YOY inflation rate, with people asking for the ECB to stop its bond-buying program as early as March), which means less money to throw at projects that don't have some strong fundamentals behind them.
- zigzigzag 10y agoThe rest of the publishing world isn't "still sorting things out". Quite a few publications have figured out how to get people to subscribe to them and now make money from their online presence.
- herplederp 10y agoCan you name a few that are rolling in cash like Google or Facebook?
- intoverflow2 10y agoShould they be?
- 6stringmerc 10y agoA couple names that come to mind as successful new publishing type entities examples could include FiveThirtyEight and GrantLand. Case studies more than full business models in my opinion.