Chapter 6: Publications
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“We now live in a world of infinite information. Most of our systems weren’t designed for this world. Even if you had the best recommendation system ever, and everyone stopped publishing interesting stuff tomorrow, you’d never get through all the content you’re interested in. You need a place to start.”
-@ev
Explained
Within Medium, there are thousands of Publications — groupings of stories with a common theme or topic. Publications all have their own unique identities, and provide the reader with a focused selection of stories. They are destinations for readers to explore topics of interest and intrigue, densely packed with well-written stories on subjects as wide and diverse as music, tech, politics, and photography. A publication offers both a destination for people to visit and a feed for them to follow.
In Medium’s first foray into content verticals, they introduced “collections.” For a brief period, they worked well. Ultimately though, the intended purpose of collections became diluted as the platform grew. So, collections were removed and the bits worth keeping iterated to publications. The concept is still mostly the same — group stories with other contextually similar ones — but the approach is different.
Note: When reading older, dated references to “collections”, substitute the word “publications”, and it will usually become relevant.
While Medium initially started as an open platform with no editorial oversight, the team launched a select few of their own publications in the hopes of creating an ecosystem that valued consistent quality. The staff run publications including Backchannel, Cuepoint, The Message, The Nib, and Vantage. Matter is the largest publication with 909,000 followers.
However, most publications are run by individuals readers and writers of Medium. By putting the power in the hands of the people, Medium has materially reduced one of the biggest problems for writers. Unless you already have a following, it’s hard to get people to read what you’ve written.
Getting readership comes down to distribution. Your story doesn’t stand a chance if you can’t get it in front of people. Outside of writing great stuff, the best way to do that within Medium is to have a large personal following. The second best way is to include your story in a publication with a captive audience.
You may have heard that the three most important words in real estate are “location, location, and location.” Properties can command a much higher value when they are in a desirable area. Retailers will happily pay for a space in Times Square that costs ten times what it would in North Dakota because more foot traffic means more business. Publications are Medium’s way of getting your story into Times Square, metaphorically speaking.
Hold tight my wordsmith friend, not just anyone can publish a story on a publication. You will need to either be an owner, an editor, or an invited writer to do so. Owners create the publication, and editors are invited to manage it with virtually identical permissions. If you are interested in being an editor or owner, you can skip ahead. For now, we’ll focus on the experience as a writer.
Joining As A Writer
You could wait for an editor to reach out to you with an invitation to write for their publication, but you strike me as the type of person that doesn’t sit idle. You, good sir or madame, should implore some hustle and reach out to the editors directly.
Occasionally, your job will be easy. Eager publications will sometimes include an email address or a link to apply to be a writer in the “Note From The Editor” — located in the “About” section — or in the publication description.
If a contact method has not been provided for you, have no fear. On any publication’s profile, you’ll see an “About” link in the upper left hand corner. Click on this, and you’ll see a list of any and all editors and writers. Your job is to figure out a way to contact anyone from the editing team so that you can pitch them on writing for their publication.
Pitching Editors
Click on any specific editor, and you’ll be directed to their personal profile page. You will see links to their Twitter and/or Facebook, and possibly a personal or company website. Spend a couple of minutes to see if you can track down an email or some other method of direct communication.
Use LinkedIn to see if you can get an introduction through a mutual contact, and follow them on Twitter. Perhaps they’ll follow you back, and then you can DM them. If you can’t find an inroad within a few minutes rather easily, I suggest moving on. Otherwise you risk wasting time, or worse — coming off as rude or annoying.
Pro Tip: Mention an editor in a tweet that references your story and ask for the invitation to write.
If you are able to find a way to contact an editor, here is some example copy you could send:
Hey Tyler,
Greg here, Medium writer and fan of your publication “The Berry Farm.” I recently published this story, and I thought it may make be interesting for the readers of your publication:
Why YourMechanic Won’t Be The Next Uber
If you think this would be a good fit for your publication, well, I’d just be super happy if you added me as a writer. (My Medium handle is “@gregmuender.”) That way, I can easily submit this story for your review, as well as subsequent ones just like it.
If not, no hard feelings. ☺
I’m sure you already know how to add a writer, but just in case, here are the instructions from Medium. (Scroll down to “Add Writers and Editors.”)
Keep up the good work,
Asking Writers
When viewing the “about” section of a publication, you’ll also see any and all writers listed. As a last resort, you may want to use the similar tactics to contact a writer of the publication, and inquire about how they were added. Don’t pitch them on adding you as a writer — they don’t have any control of that — but do inquire on how they became an approved writer. Send a short and simple message, and try to provide value. They don’t owe you anything, so be cognizant of their time.
Submitting
No matter your intention of a story that you write, your objective is most likely identical to nearly all other scribes. You want eyeballs, preferably lots of ‘em.
If you spends hours drafting and editing a post, it is devastating to see only a handful of people ever read it. Blogging into an empty vacuum can be painful experience. You worked hard, and you want readers. That’s why it is so important to become a writer of a publication. Once you are in, you’ve got access to instant distribution.
When you publish into a publication, you have the opportunity to introduce your stories into relevant context. Whether you are sharing your thoughts on product design, a wild story about something that crazy happened to you, or your thoughts on a new piece of legislation, publications are a place where those interested are most likely to find it.
Once you become a writer for a publication, you can quickly submit a story for review. You can’t publish directly into the publication, your story will need to first be approved by an editor or owner. When editing or viewing your story, simply click “Add To Publication” at the top, and choose the one you see fit. All editors will be notified of your story submission, and they will then either reject it or publish it into the publication. You can either submit a story as a draft, or as published a published story.
If you are an owner or editor, your story will automatically become part of the publication. (Medium could require you to approve your own work, but that seems unnecessary.) Simply select your publication in the drop down menu, and it’s in.
Drafts
If an editor of a publication has final authority on the content, they are more likely to put on the needed finishing touches and then publish. When you submit as a draft, you’re essentially saying “It’s 95% there, but feel free to add any touches before it sees the world.”
The editor can make any edits to your draft and has the same capabilities that you do to change the text, images, and formatting. They may or may not seek your permission before publishing the revised version, so be careful who you are submitting to. To view the edits they’ve made, you can check your version history, and even revert to an earlier version if you wish. If the new version is way off from the original, you can also remove your story from the publication at any time.
Published Stories
I recommend submitting your story once it is already published as public or unlisted. Some owners/editors can take weeks to approve or deny your story, and if your story is still a draft, it won’t be publicly available during that entire time. So, publish your story so it can get in front for readers, and then submit to a publication. If it gets approved, you’ll get even more readers to what should already be a nice baseline.
Building Your Portfolio
Having a vast selection of publications to publish into is incredibly valuable. It’s an asset that I recommend building up right away. When you have access to publications, you have access to readers. Increase the former, and you consequently increase the latter.
It also helps to have a diversity in available publication options. The ability to pick and choose based on context, theme, or audience is extremely beneficial.
Sometimes you are going to be added as a writer with no advanced notice. You’ll just check your drop-down menu one day, and see a new publication as an option. It’s kind of strange that any publication can add you as a writer, but it’s really no hindrance. Until it gets to a point where you really can’t handle all of the publications in your drop-down, you really don’t need to remove any of them.
Not all publications are equal. Some have just a few followers, while the most popular ones have a few hundred thousand. In a coming story, I’ll publish a full list of the most popular ones. Follow me on Medium to get notified when I do.
Playing The Field
Crucially, stories can only ever be in one publication at a time, and may live in “under review” purgatory for what seems like forever. Just like the real world of publishing, you can’t expect to get a response every time— many of your pitches will go answered.
To prevent pitch rot, I suggest letting them “brew” for only a few days. If you don’t get a response in that time, you can remove your story from that publication and submit to a new one. For those publications that you are quite fond of getting into, you can send a polite nudge to the editor(s):
Hey Tyler,
Greg here, approved writer for the “The Berry Farm” publication on Medium. Three days ago, I submitted a new story for review called “This Morning I Gave Up My Car For 30 Days.” I hope that you find this makes a great fit for your readers!
If not, it would be really great if you could let me know so I can pitch it to another publication. As you are probably aware, Medium only allows one single pending submission at a time.
Thank you,
Note: Watch for Medium to roll out better submission management tools.
Removing From A Publication
If you no longer want your story to be part of a publication, you can remove it. When viewing your story in “edit” mode, click “add to publication” and deselect the radio button associated with the publication your story is in.
If you no longer want to be a writer for a certain publication, click “leave publication” on your publication management page.
Accommodating Editors
I can’t write about publications without giving some credit to a few editors and that feature my stories promptly and regularly. Check out “Adventures In Consumer Technology” by @peterhimler and “General Writing: Idea, Thinking, Opinion” by @tkwyoung.
Owning/Editing A Publication
Companies, universities, artists, founders, marketers, and writers launch new publications every day in order to establish themselves as an authority in their respective spaces. Creating a publication can be a powerful way to leverage the creative work of a community and gain notoriety for your brand. Use a publication to carve out your own space within Medium and establish credibility as a recognized expert in your field.
You may want to use a publication as a means to keep all of your own stories in one spot, or you may wish to bring in stories from others. Either way, you’ll be able to wrap up a singular concept or theme in a nice, concise way. A publication can be spawned for any theme or topic you’d like, but it is important to have some continuity between stories that you publish within it.
One careful consideration that you should make is which brand do you actually want to build — your own, or your publication’s? Both will take resources to do so and realistically, pouring time and effort into one may come at the expense of the other. Readers can follow your publications without following you personally, so you need to understand which brand is more important and build accordingly.
Note: Publications you create are accessible to anyone viewing your profile page.
Creating A Publication
Before create your publication, it is important to identify its voice. What types of stories do you want to publish? What is the content vertical you’ll represent? Who is your audience? Once you have that buttoned up, it’s time to launch.
Click the “New publication” button on the publications page. Give your publication a catchy name of at least two words, and populate the publication description, heading, and heading description. You can change these at any time by clicking the edit button on the publication page.
Note: Your publication’s URL is permanent and will not change, even if you edit your publication name.
Customizing
Medium has gone to great lengths to give you the tools to customize your publication, all within the familiar design constraints of the platform. Add some variety by playing around a bit with formatting, sections, and other customizable features within the publication.
You can decide what type of stories will auto-populate the section — latest, trending, or featured. You can also determine the number of stories to populate the section, set it to grid or list mode, choose to display titles on or below the stories, adjust grid spacing in the layout, and remove an entire section.
Assets
Logo — This optional image is displayed at the top of stories. It should be 72 pixels tall and no more than 600 pixels wide. It should also look presentable on a white background. When you upload a logo, it will replace the publication name and avatar that display at the top of stories by default. It will also appear in Medium search results and on the “about” page of the publication. To revert to the default display, click “Remove” in the logo field of the side menu.
Avatar — This required image will appear at the bottom of the every story you have in your publication. It will also be displayed on your publication’s “about” page and in Medium search results if you don’t have a logo.
Header Logo Image -This image displays to visitors of your publication. It is optional if you have a heading populated.
Tags
Your publication isn’t worth much if it isn’t getting discovered, so you’ll want to take advantage of Medium’s tagging system to increase exposure. Just like you should do with your stories, you can add up to three tags to your publication, too. You’ll have the best chance at getting discovered if your tags are both popular and relevant.
Adding Writers And Editors
Once your publication is up and running, it is important to start building out your team of writers and editors. Without new and interesting stories, your publication is worthless. Writers are critical to maintaining a consistent cadence of new material. To increase your content production, increase your number of writers.
Technically speaking, you are the owner and the first editor. You’ll always be the only owner, but editors are the managers that will maintain a smooth production and release of content. They are mostly autonomous — they have the authority to review, edit, and publish writer submissions, add their own stories, and remove any story from the publication. They can even modify certain parts of the appearance of the publication and feature specific stories.
Adding writers and editors is effortless. Click the arrow in the top right corner when editing your publication, then click “People”, and finally enter the Medium username of anyone you would like to add. You can source writers and editors passively — by waiting for folks to get in touch with you, or actively — by reaching out to prospects.
Pro Tip: To streamline the process that your team uses to add their stories to a publication, make them all editors. They will be able to publish into the publication without your approval needed.
Note: Only invite editors that you trust to embody the voice and tone of your publication.
Passive Recruiting
Make it easy for interested writers and editors to get in touch with you. Add your public contact information in the “info” section of your publication, including email, Twitter, and Facebook.
To attract even more interest, explicitly encourage your readers to share their stories with you for review, or to outright apply to join your publication. You may wish to publish your email address in the publication description, or provide a link to your own submission form.
Active Recruiting
Just like you’ll have to use some hustle to become a writer for a publication, the inverse is true for publication editors and owners. To source writers, sweat equity often works best. Start by keeping an eye for any writers that create memorable and exceptional stories. Reach out to them via email or Twitter, and ask if they would like to be a writer or editor for your publication.
To bypass that extra diligence, you can just skip the prior step and send them an invitation through Medium, as previously discussed. They won’t receive a notification, so they won’t be made explicitly aware — the only way they will see their new writing or editing access is in their drop-down window when submitting, or their publication management page.
Reviewing Submitted Stories
Stories can be submitted to your publication in either published status or draft. The former doesn’t give your or any editors editing ability, while the latter allows full editing capability. As long as you have the setting toggled to “on”, Medium will email you when a new published story or draft is submitted by an approved writer for your review.
Editors can also review the status of all submitted stories. When viewing the a publication’s page, click the chevron next to “Follow/Following”, and then click “Submissions.”
Featured Stories
Medium gives you the ability to feature specific stories on your publication, which are displayed prominently for your readers. The favorable placement will most likely result in a disproportionately higher amount of views when compared to other stories on your publication.
To feature a story, navigate to your publication’s “edit” page. Set the “Stories” drop-down to “featured”, and then choose the story you would like to feature.
Sponsored Publications
Medium’s preference for design has always created an existential dilemma. The platform is meant to be beautiful, but ads take away from that. Ads do pay the bills, but they clutter up an otherwise beautiful interface and deter readers. It’s a classic Catch-22.
Sponsored publications may just be the right solution for Medium to generate revenue. If they work, Medium has proven that publications can make money without burdening readers with the uninteresting and annoying distraction of ads. The “ad” is baked into the story, not shoved down a readers’ throats via a popup or display.
“We’re in exploratory moment. It’s not about the money, it’s about the experiment.” — @e
As part of its exploratory mindset, Medium has run some interesting tests with sponsored publications. First up was the design focused “Re:form”, which was sponsored exclusively by BMW. Medium embarked on a six month partnership with the German automaker to publish one hundred stories, all of which will come with branding attached via a “presented by BMW” stamp at the top of stories, and occasionally a BMW video at the bottom.
Medium is given a relatively autonomous general creative direction and voice in order to conceive the stories for the publication. The two groups collaborate on the final direction of a published story, and BMW still retains full rights to use all content off-site. The vast majority of stories are not explicitly focused on BMW, but Medium will commission a story much more directly attributed around every fifteen stories. These will be released directly on BMW’s profile and include appropriate sponsorship disclosure. Interestingly, BMW is guaranteed a minimum number of TTR minutes for all one hundred stories.
These stories are not intended to be display ads cloaked as stories, and the approach is not blatant. It’s very important to look at the nuances of this trailblazing approach. BMW is working hard to promote the design of their new cars, and sponsoring a publication about design was a very relevant position to reach an interested demographic.
It also helped that storytelling was already very aligned with BMW’s culture— it’s been at their core for years. Medium was simply another channel to tell a story that is decades in the making.
In addition to Re:form, Medium is planning Sponsored Publications in music and tech, with partners yet to be announced. The music one will be edited by Jonathan Shecter, the cofounder of Source magazine, and Steven Levy, a prominent Wired magazine contributor, will lead the tech side of things.
It’s important to understand the mechanics behind these sponsored publications — it could be the start of something much bigger that you can tap into. Technically speaking, there is currently nothing to stop you from from setting up a deal like this for your own publication. Look to BMW’s example as a reference on how to best strike a balance between making money and providing value for your readers.
When sponsoring Re:form, BMW considered it an “awareness play.” Accordingly, they measured the success of the campaign off the effectiveness of just that. You too should determine what metrics you are shooting for, and evaluate the performance of any stories to determine their relative success.
Custom Domains
Medium is a place for everyone’s stories and ideas. But that doesn’t mean they all have to live at medium.com. I’m talking ‘bout custom domains, a recent product release from Medium.
Medium has introduced a limited beta launch of custom domains for a select few publications. For example, If you go to thenib.com, the page lives on the Medium platform, but the URL does not follow the standard www.medium.com/@example format.
Publications with custom domains will still have all the benefits of being part of the Medium network. Publication editors simply secure a domain where they want their stories to live, and Medium will take care of the rest. The exciting single difference is that now publishers can build a brand around a domain name that is wholly theirs. Branding experts rejoice — this is a very good thing and a huge leap toward the penultimate picture of Medium.
You can’t have a custom domain for your own publication just yet, but Medium promises to expand support as they refine the product. Let them know you are interested here, and they’ll update you when they are ready to expand the capability to other publications. No need to rush — it is not first come, first served.
Pro Tip: Medium doesn’t own the domains, they are registered by the publications independently. If you have a desired domain name in mind, secure it now using GoDaddy, Register.com, etc.
Note: Medium hasn’t announced any plans to offer custom domains for profiles.
Baby Steps
Not quite ready for a publication yet? Use Medium’s story embed feature to create periodic stories of your favorite finds and your own stories. This will allow you to develop a repository of your most-liked stories with no restrictions on who wrote them or if they are currently in a publication. Stories for stories…how meta!
To do this, draft a story and embed any particularly memorable or valuable stories from Medium within it. You can publish it publicly, or keep it to yourself as a draft or an unlisted story.
Pro Tip: Look at how the Medium staff used the embed story function to document the notable happenings of the prior month.
Deleting A Publication
Sometimes a publication will need to be deleted. To do so, you’ll need to first remove all the stories from it. After that, return to the publication homepage and click “edit.” Click the arrow in the upper right corner to slide out the drawer. See the drop down menu for the option to delete the publication.
