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Medium Announces Layoffs

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Jan 5, 2017.

  1. Melody Bot Jan 5, 2017
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Medium will be laying off a third of their employees:


    Upon further reflection, it’s clear that the broken system is ad-driven media on the internet. It simply doesn’t serve people. In fact, it’s not designed to. The vast majority of articles, videos, and other “content” we all consume on a daily basis is paid for — directly or indirectly — by corporations who are funding it in order to advance their goals. And it is measured, amplified, and rewarded based on its ability to do that. Period. As a result, we get…well, what we get. And it’s getting worse.

    That’s a big part of why we are making this change today.
    ​

    I don’t see much here about what this new approach will be, and without knowing that, I have to remain skeptical. The bigger issue is how most ad-driven media on the internet has worked for decades. It incentivizes clickbait by measuring clicks and page views when advertisers should be more concerned about attention and influence. Online publishers have to make a lot of difficult decisions about what kinds of advertising they want to run, and most of the times they’re completely beholden to what those buying the ads want from them. So you get multiple interstitial pop-ups, impossible to close full screen ads, and other bullshit that advertisers think work because they’re measuring the wrong things. How many times have you accidentally clicked on a mobile ad because of how intrusive it was?

    Anecdotally, we’ve seen higher click-through rates on our banners and feed sponsors than I was ever seeing with the horrific ads we were forced to run on AbsolutePunk. But even with that it’s because of our supporters that this website is able to keep running. I still believe readers helping to fund the publications they love will play a big part in the future of online publishing.

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    Raku, KidLightning, mercury and 1 other person like this.
  2. crunchprank Jan 5, 2017
    crunchprank

    crunchprank.net Prestigious

    I use Medium, and I've reread this entry about three times now and still not understanding what exactly they're changing or how they're adapting their approach to publishing that will cause their platform to be more successful in the long-term. All I'm really getting is that, they had a good year, but because they've invested in attracting commercial publishers and don't run ads then they're not making money. What exactly am I missing or misinterpreting?
     
  3. EntryLevelTank Jan 5, 2017
    EntryLevelTank

    "Draft Day" is a good film Supporter

    I can't agree more with you when it comes to measuring the wrong thing. Every day my clients ask me "how many clicks did we get" and I keep wanting to respond "why do you care?" What good is 1,000 clicks on an ad if only 25 actually give a shit about your business? So I try and measure more telling stats, but our clients don't give a shit, they just want to hear what they understand because they did adwords once so they know everything now. Infuriating.
     
    Anticitizen7, Petit nain des Îles, Jason Tate and 2 others like this.
  4. KyleK Jan 5, 2017
    KyleK

    Let's get these people moving faster! Supporter

    Absolutely see the same thing when it comes to the communications department at my workplace reporting back to us regarding public engagement and consultation. I really don't care about clicks or "impressions", I want us to find ways to get meaningful engagement, even if it's only with a much smaller percentage of people - there's no point being motivated by shallow, overly-optimistic indicators that don't speak to actual success in engaging people.
     
    Jason Tate likes this.
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  6. Yellowcard2006 Jan 5, 2017
    Yellowcard2006

    Trusted

    I see ads on chorus and I my first thought is "hey that's cool" and my second is "is that an ad". That's how I know this site is doing it right. The AFI sponsorship for example.
     
    Petit nain des Îles, mercury, FTank and 2 others like this.
  7. Serenity Now Jan 5, 2017
    Serenity Now

    deliver us from e-mail Supporter

    "Support or die"
     
  8. Malatesta Jan 8, 2017
    Malatesta

    i may get better but we won't ever get well Prestigious

    worried about this. medium seems to be a great medium (heh) but i wasn't sure how sustainable they would be, hopefully they get something sorted out without laying off too many people. that's an awful bit of news folks got around the holidays :(