Dear Medium: The 1:1 Story/Publication Restriction Is Lame
Hi Medium Product People:
I know, when all the stories can go into all the publications, curatorial clarity gets muddled, all the publications get weaker because no one stands out as strong, it all gets redundant and Rhododendron Red gets confused with candy-apple red—yadda yadda yadda. It’s true. I’ve worked in publishing, and yes: we need the weeds to appreciate the roses.
Problem: On Medium, many writers like to create their own collections of their own works, which they do through the “Publications” feature with their composed Articles. For the most part it’s not a problem, it’s awesome. I love seeing people self-curate their writing into themed collections or subject-centric publications. It’s problematic though, because then those Articles can never contribute to somebody else’s Publication.
Capitalism and Objectivism are all about each individual fighting for their own survival. Both systems motivate and discourage participants, in equal measure. Both have brought into our world best-of-breed writing, technology, music, artwork—all the things that make life wonderful. But with lots of blood, misery, and muted players along the way. While greatness is never cheap—is that cost really necessary—and what casualties does it leave in its trail that could have been gems with a less severe system? Writing and storytelling have always been more collaborative than competitive in nature, as well, so… yeah. At odds principals, I’m left with the feeling of.
May I suggest a compromise? Perhaps just restrict stories to one external Publication and one author-administered Publication? Or, restrict Articles to two or three Publications, total?
Well known authors published in real magazines, have their pieces run in WiReD, Bloomberg, Salon, etc. No one prolific writer only writes for just one publication, unless they’re a columnist—but their pieces are restricted to be published in the one publication that paid them to write that piece. Unless they wrote it on their own, and then it goes into a few publications—but not too many, as that’d dilute the value of their writing… which is at least common knowledge in journalism and editorial publishing.
Medium (as I’m aware—please correct me if I’m wrong) is not vying to prioritize paid authorship ahead of anyman authorship & a prioritization of expressive storytelling ahead of all the distractions traditional blogging platforms provide. Which is what’s beautiful about it. But the 1:1 Article/Publication ratio exists in direct conflict with that principal. Please to ask that you change the interplay of those two features, to fertilize the garden of Medium Publications, but judiciously?
Use Case
My motivating use-case of course, is my own publication Tech Diversity Files. The first piece from another author that I asked to be contributed, was from Joelle Emerson whom is also a partner at the firm Paradigm. It’s imho a cornerstone piece of wisdom in the subject matter of my publication, and was a vital contribution. Joelle however, wanted to create a Publication for Paradigm—Inclusion Insights—that she and her partner could contribute to. When she created that Publication, I lost her awesome piece so that it could live there. I suspect Joelle also created Inclusion Insights as a thought leadership thing to boost the presence of her awesome business, and in our ultra-competitive world she should absolutely be empowered through Medium to do that. But why should she have to also be forced to remove a piece from a community-centric collaborative-spirited Publication in order to add it to hers?
EricaJoy has also written a number of pieces that blew my socks off and were perfect to invite to be submitted to my Publication (this one, this one, and this one stand out!)—but she’d already included them in a reflective Publication she’s curating of (s0 far) her own works. Maybe she’ll invite others to contribute to it—I hope she does! But its curatorial focus is totally different than mine. Sure, it’d make all the Diversity/Inclusion Publications weak if we all had the same articles in them—but I don’t see that as a likely risk. Especially if only 2–3 external Pubs are allowed per Article.
Anil Dash? Same prob as above, with this piece (for a pub he’s thinking about creating but hasn’t yet). Steven Levy? Same prob too, with this badass piece on ageism (an important subject niche I have yet to find any great non-claimed Articles on, to boot!).
So, yeah—I’d consider this problem to be simple hurt feelings, if I was just being rejected by lots of authors whose pieces I wanted. But I’ve already been told by some, that they wanted to submit a piece to my Publication—but that the Medium platform limited them from doing so, with the 1:1 requirement.
There ya go, use-case sealed and delivered. And not one that given the subjective, beautifully fluid nature of curation and curatorial POV, I expect is a total rarity. Give it some thought? More collaboration, less competition (even just by a hair—no, not asking for total weaksauce)?
P.S.
Could you guys also maybe separate “Response” articles from “OG” articles, when looking at an Author’s profile—on an aside? The confusion and discovery fatigue… oy! Ok, UX/Product babe whose brain can’t shut up sometimes, will now rest peacefully.
P.P.S.
As an editor of a Publication and a UX’er, I actually don’t mind that you empower Authors to prohibit email requests for Articles from Publication Editors. I’m happy to hunt down folks off Medium, and see that as a rad respect for users. See, I’m not a total Debbie Downer! :)
