Comments on post “Medium Membership”
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
It's no surprise Medium's heading in this direction after @ev's blog post announcing a change in their business model. I'm hopeful and curious to see how its received, but it's unclear what type of content $5/mo will buy you right now.
Curious to hear peoples' thoughts on this!
73sharetweet・
Neil Sandhu
@neilsandhu · Founder and CEO, Hire.Bid
@rrhoover maybe it's just me, but it's also unclear what not paying gets you. Does Medium have ads? (I used to use it daily, but must confess haven't as much in recent months but don't think I've noticed ads before). Is this in conjunction with starting to run ads for those who don't pay?
25sharetweet・
Diego Moreira
@_diego_moreira · Product Development, Estilingue Company
@rrhoover @ev I'm curious too. Maybe writers will be able to publish free and paid posts, and only membership users will be able to access paid content. I'm more curious how will be the payment process for writers.
1sharetweet・
Naomi Assaraf
@nassaraf · CMO, Technophile, pancake lover.
@rrhoover @ev I think $5/mo is to test drop off rate / price acceptance.
Idea: Lots of companies host their corporate blogs on Medium, so why not give them the ability to sponsor paid memberships to have more inclusivity on Medium Premium? It would be a tax write off for them, and it would grow Medium's premium memberships too. Win-win.
24sharetweet・
Lyondhur
@lyondhur · SM UX/IxD Designer ProdDev & Scrum Coach
@rrhoover it's only a matter of time until the vast majority services go premium, no matter how large is the funding pocket. I'm curious to see if that's going to be enough, given that they are now crossing that "need-cash" line.. On a second note, we do not exactly know whether they ad model is profitable and well engaged enough to sustain such modification in their biz model. It sure will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
2sharetweet・
Sebastián León
@sebfeed · Builder. Dreamer. CoFounder @ KaleKam 🌿📸
@rrhoover @ev seems like a tough business, there's so much awesome free content out there. I wish the Medium team the best with this new direction! Charging subscribers for great articles definitely helps keep Medium aligned with the customers, instead of making them the product for advertisers *edited to be less negative
1sharetweet・
Josh Withers
@joshuawithers · Celebrant
@sebfeed @rrhoover @ev you're forecasting the end of value-exchange systems?
1sharetweet・
Greg Cohn
@gregcohn · Co-Founder & CEO, Burner
@rrhoover @ev I think the fewer (or less clear) the direct benefits, the more interesting the experiment. In the current political and media environment, in which it's harder than ever to find and consume quality journalism amid the sea of clickbait-- and in which it's even harder to be a creator of high-quality work-- many readers have an innate motivation to support high-quality writing without the need for benefits beyond the intrinsic one.
2sharetweet・
Chris Messina
@chrismessina · 🏆 PH Community Member of the Year!
@gregcohn @rrhoover if @ev can convince Brain Pickings to move over, I'll be more convinced. :)
9sharetweet・
Andy O'Dower
@odower · Head of Product @curiositydotcom
@chrismessina THAT would be amazing. Highly unlikely.
upvotesharetweet・
Varun Dave
@varundave · Varun Dave
@rrhoover @ev I am not sure if two are comparable, but if I am ever paying for reading online content, it will only be HBR. Even though it costs almost twice what Medium is priced at, its benefits outweigh the cost. Unless you get Elon Musk to write on monthly basis ;)
upvotesharetweet・
Alexander Kehaya
@afkehaya · Entrepreneur / ActionWins.co
@_diego_moreira @rrhoover @ev Yeah, I'm curious about this too. As a publication owner and a writer, a large part of the value prop of medium is that I can get a lot of views/reads. If there are less paid eyeballs than free, why should we pay? If paying meant more people viewing our content then that might make sense. All that said, part of the beauty of medium is that great content rises to the top, so paying might take away from the quality. Interested to see where this goes!
upvotesharetweet・
Alexander Kehaya
@afkehaya · Entrepreneur / ActionWins.co
@_diego_moreira @rrhoover @ev Just signed up to be notified. I'm not sure you have hit the nail on the head with the value prop for paying $5/month but I'll pay that just because I love using Medium. It's a valuable platform for me as a writer and publisher so anything I can do to keep it going is worth it.
4sharetweet・
Guy Gunaratne
@guygunaratne · Co-Founder, Product & Design @Storygami
@chrismessina @gregcohn @rrhoover @ev good shout.
upvotesharetweet・
Rodrigo Prior
@rodrigoprior · CEO @ Welearn
@chrismessina @gregcohn @rrhoover @ev It was very clear that the model should be changed, but I'm not sure if the extra features and "exclusive stories" will catch the eyeballs.
I wish the guys were not in trouble with revenue, but I'll give a try to see how it fits on my content consumption daily basis.
upvotesharetweet・
Pavel Svitek
@pavel_svitek · CTO @LocalizationGuru
@rrhoover @ev I really love Medium and I truly believe they can become a Facebook for publishing. I hope they will soon find the right business model and we will have the great Medium we have today.
upvotesharetweet・
Erica Berger
@goodberger · Founder, Catchpool
@chrismessina @gregcohn @rrhoover @ev doubt that Maria would do that--she has a robust community and business model of her own.
upvotesharetweet・
Leslie Purchase
@lputhenp · Co Founder Ourdata
@chrismessina @gregcohn @rrhoover @ev The fact that she is so desirable is why she doesn't need to and probably wouldn't move to medium. Figure out how to make it irresistible to her and you are on to something. Content is abundant and cheap. Great content is rare and valuable.
1sharetweet・
Alexander Kehaya
@afkehaya · Entrepreneur / ActionWins.co
@koop can you share some of your thoughts on the above? Love what you guys are building and open to the possibility of a paid service but I'm curious to hear more about where you guys see this going.
upvotesharetweet・
Alex
@tpbtv
@rrhoover @ev Don't know why they went for this business model. I think that this will significantly hurt the platform.
upvotesharetweet・
Kunal Bhatia
@kunalslab · Co-founder & Design Lead @SlidesUp
@chrismessina @rrhoover @ev I'm in. How about you?
upvotesharetweet・
Chris Messina
@chrismessina · 🏆 PH Community Member of the Year!
@kunalslab @rrhoover @ev considering that I've made money on the platform, subscribing is the least I could do at this point. Medium has proven to be extremely valuable to me.
2sharetweet・
Kunal Bhatia
@kunalslab · Co-founder & Design Lead @SlidesUp
@chrismessina @rrhoover @ev about to be in the same boat, so I figured I should support on day 1. Personal sites have come and gone. Personal bots have come and gone. Medium has been the place I can point to without fail since June 13, 2013.
upvotesharetweet・