2021 Will be an Interesting Year for Medium

On Pro Cell Phone Writers and Star Authors

Steven Gambardella

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In Almost Famous an aspiring music writer gets more than he bargains for when he goes on the road with a band. (Image: publicity still. Fair use.)

Back in January 2019 I wrote “Medium is the future” in title caps. A big declaration. And I meant it, and I still think it’s true. But only in some respects now.

This gushing post never got curated because Medium won’t curate anything about Medium, even if it’s positive. I didn’t care. I just loved Medium at the time.

I loved its independence, the absence of advertising, its elegant minimal design, its “long-tail” model of catering for a multitude of interests and — most importantly — the power of the readers to pay the writers.

I also loved the fact that readers are willing to forgive typos if the writing is good

It was still a fancy blogging platform then, and what was most intriguing (and addictive) about it was all the niches it catered for — giving passionate writers a voice in their field. This is what I mean by the “long-tail” — a distribution model that Chris Anderson first coined to describe Amazon’s early success.

I loved reading science, philosophy, psychology, history, art and literature. Who cares about that stuff? A few of us do, and Medium will give us what we’re looking for, like it does for every other niche interest.

It was a foam party of ideas and commentary, hugely entertaining to browse. It had a wikipedia-like breadth, but an egalitarianism that made it the YouTube of the written form: by everyone, for everyone.

2018 Medium was a confluence of innovation: an elegant blogging and networking platform, with a plugged-in photo library (Unsplash) and easy payments (Stripe). This auspicious event created some addictive magic by giving unknown and independent writers an amplified voice, and the motivation ($) to keep up the writing.

Cell Phone Writing Success

Published writing has been democratized like never before. Medium is a big part of that. Journalists’…

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Steven Gambardella

History PhD. The lessons of history and philosophy for your life and work. Writes The Sophist: https://sophist.substack.com/