Changes to Our Financial Model
Dear all,
tl;dr: We are putting our new content behind a paywall, but we will allow exclusive free access through links posted on our social media handles.
My vision for The Xylem is not just as a site for scientists to submit their personal, authentic stories outside of their research, but as a startup, a place to connect normal people with scientists. This means that The Xylem has to explore a sustainable business model. Getting income provides valuable capital for The Xylem to do the following things:
- Buying the necessary software/ services to produce quality content
- Navigating complex legal procedures (trademarking, potential formation of an LLC)
- Paid advertising on social media to increase our reach and attract contributors
- Explore possible avenues of scaling up (doing podcasts, videos, books, additional products, etc.)
- Making me and potential staff’s lives easier
As a result, I would like to take this opportunity to announce that The Xylem will be joining the Medium Partner Program.
Starting from now on, our articles will be placed behind a quasi-paywall (more on the term shortly). Millions of Medium members, who receive special benefits by paying US$5 a month, will pay us by reading and clapping for our content.
Normally, non-members can read at most three articles under the Medium Partner Program. However, since our aim is to connect normal people with scientists, we hope everyone can and will read our articles. As a result, we will trigger a unique Friend Link for each of our posts, and disseminate the link through our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn handles. You can access all of our content for free if and only if you enter our Medium site through those Friend Links (hence the quasi-paywall). Please be rest assured that all our previous content will be free forever.
For our contributors, I encourage you to sign up as a Medium Partner as well. This could ensure that your hard work could be recognized by our supporters. Note that you need to provide your Friend Link to the editor (me) when you submit your draft if you opt to put your article behind the paywall. I will approach you individually regarding this matter.
I hope that this approach could help The Xylem grow, yet retain the ability to provide our content to everyone. If you feel like supporting The Xylem in ways more than reading, clapping/liking, and sharing/retweeting, consider joining the Medium Partner Program. For the price of a cup of coffee every month, you can financially support us and read other quality podcasts, audios, and articles on the platform.
Thank you for your attention, and let’s join the #science #storytelling revolution.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Ip
Founder and Editor
