If You Were Ev Williams For A Day

Let’s take a minute and see if we can re-imagine Medium

Whit Harwood
Published in
4 min readMar 22, 2017

--

You wake up, unlock your phone and quickly tap the green “M” right on the other side of your lockscreen. You open up the lean and infinitely manageable product that is bursting with potential and has been adopted by millions of users… and yet, you mutter a 4-letter word and wonder why it isn’t HUNDREDS of millions.

And then, naturally, you think: well, then how are we going to make hundreds of millions?

You turn on the TV, boot up your laptop and slide open your tablet only to realize the one true state of our reality: we are no longer in an either/or world. Rather, our present is both/and, every moment demanding that we create, adjust, accept and move on all in a matter of nanoseconds every single day.

So if our minute-to-minute interaction with the world is all-inclusive, all-encompassing and yet somehow not overwhelming, then… then why just text?

The power of the written word has been your calling card: from the creation of the blogosphere to that now infamous 140-character bird-based creation, your acknowledgement of the cultural vacillation between maximalist and minimalist is unparalleled.

And yet, you begin to wonder…

Yes, Stories have come into focus, a highbrow adoption of the User Generated Drivel propagated on other platforms by younger audiences. But you know that Stories are hardly the end game, merely a vehicle for opening the gateway to an entirely alternative way of looking at the world: content accepting, not platform exclusive.

You quickly harken back to the premise on which Medium is being built: the notion that we want the feeling that we are hearing from everyone, when in fact we only want the best quality from those among us. We want to think that we’re consuming in a truly open environment, away from SEO and sinister targeting techniques and able to catch a Washington Post article right above a nuanced political take from someone who dabbles in editorial in their free time.

Yet, the saturation of the content consumption market is absolute: we’re incapable of consuming every new show, every pointed Op-Ed or even every podcast, necessitating that performance-based algorithms sort the wheat from the chaff.

Your iterative process quickens and you pour yourself a second cup of coffee.

You then ponder:

Why are we limited to just text and Stories?

Why not include short-form video content, podcasts and even real-time news and information?

Aren’t there enough freelance producers to create high quality content and, leveraging Medium’s algorithm, can’t we ensure that only the best content rises to the top?”

Your mind leaps to branded video content: a possible monetization tool to entice freelance producers and a potential avenue to drive new advertisers to the platform as well.

Yes, the backend programming would be substantial, but what if you could pair brands with producers and then promote that content to users who may be more liable to appreciate the creative and brand message?

Could that guarantee a higher ROI for brands, thereby creating a necessary digital alternative to the Google/Facebook Digital Ad Cartel?

And what about real-time news and information? Could Medium leverage independent publishers to produce news and information content that conveys boots-on-the-ground realities instead of filter-bubble-nonsense? And what if that news and information looking glass cracked our collective digital callus, enabled more people to understand pervasive sub-surface hardship and, most importantly, helped us re-develop cultural empathy?

As this more-than-a-mirage image of the future comes into focus, you realize that above all, these adoptions would ensure that Medium can be true to its name: merely a channel for connecting the masses of untapped freelance creators to targeted audiences, while establishing an unparalleled branded content advertising proposition for digital dollars just waiting to jump free from the withering linear oak tree.

Your mind wanders to whether or not a subscription service will still be necessary, but you decide to table that hurdle until at least the afternoon.

Starting the ignition, you head to Market Street, quiet confidence brimming from ear to ear, ready to turn Medium into the freelance media conduit that it has always deserved to be…

Read next:

--

--

Startup Grind
Startup Grind

Published in Startup Grind

Stories, tips, and learnings from and for startups around the world. Welcoming submissions re: startup education, tech trends, product, design, hiring, growth, investing, and more. Interested in submitting? Visit our submission form here: https://airtable.com/shrShpeN89HrzCzOB

Whit Harwood
Whit Harwood

Written by Whit Harwood

Media and Tech junkie. Always trying to find what’s next. Baseball addict. True Detective apologist. Old Bay evangelist.

No responses yet