Will the last one on Medium remember to turn out the lights?
We’re still here. Are we idiots?
There’s an exodus going on. A real occurrence. Publications are leaving Medium en masse. Several are already gone. Some will be gone. Others still set up shop elsewhere and aren’t posting much — if any — new content on the Medium platform.
This isn’t FOMO. This is more like FOMOOGO: fear of missing out on getting out. To make this clear as mud, those that have left / are leaving aren’t making clean breaks.
The Awl was/is …
… now returned to WordPress.
The Billfold was/is …
… now returned to WordPress.
The Hairpin has supposedly left Medium:
… but is still publishing on the platform. And yet they’ve “moved” to Wordpress:
The Ringer moved to Vox’s platform (in May). I think. Google “The Ringer” and it takes you to:
Which is right here on Medium (Yes, you’re still on Medium right now, in case you’re wondering). The links from The Ringer’s Twitter and Facebook channels also take you right back to Medium, so I guess we’re still waiting for The Ringer to debut on Vox. (Can’t wait for all those ads!)
UPDATE Aug. 8: The Ringer is now “reloaded” on Vox Media:
The Ringer also decided to slightly redesign their logo on the news ite, and found a way to make it uglier.
Thrive Global is occupying dual spaces, on new solo platform:
… and still on Medium, but no new content since June 21:
Pacific Standard appears to have made a clean break. No longer on Medium, but here:
Backchannel, formerly on Medium, is now on WIRED as of mid-June 2017:
… but is keeping (for now) a placeholder landing page to redirect to the new magazine on WIRED.
The Huffington Post never really made the switch to Medium, but treated it like a repository for re-posting content:
It’s hard to tell what they were ever really doing here. HuffPo hasn’t added any new content to their Medium publication since Sept. 2016, so they quit (although they’re still hanging around) well before Ev Williams announced the new revenue(less) model for Medium at the beginning of the year.
Slated to depart Medium on Aug. 1 yet still currently publishing: Think Progress
Thanks to Caleb Ramsby for the Think Progress tip.
Film School Rejects is still here for now …
… but they’ve made the switch to WordPress for advertising revenue.
Thanks to Justin Cox 🍩for the Film School Rejects note.
So who’s next? And why are we still here? Perhaps more importantly, where are we gonna go next? The answer to the last question is the answer to the previous two.
Also by Julian Rogers
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