adult-1868015_1920

Medium is the platform you may not know about, but you should.  It was started in 2012 by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams and has become a place for people to debate Trump, Clinton, and Brexit – amazingly in logical, rational debate (for the most part).

Medium is a place where writers write and readers read.  It’s a place where thoughtful, introspective epics are discussed and debated.  It’s a place where difficult conversations take place.

Unlike social media, long-form articles are the most popular. While it may not be mainstream, topics and ideas that started out on Medium have found their way into the national dialogue.

It’s a place where the most read article of the year involved Brexit.  And it was the first place I heard the term.

2

Or a painful-to-read account of what it’s like to work for a tech company when you don’t earn enough to live in the city you need to be to work there… that led to the writer being fired.

ceo

Or how the sitcom “Friends” triggered the downfall of Western Civilization – in painstaking detail.

friends

Compare the top 10 post of the year on Medium to the top tweets or Facebook posts.  While the Presidential election was the top topic on Facebook, you know how quickly the discussion turned into shouting matches and pitted friend-against-friend.  Oh, and the biggest of all was… you guessed it… Chewbacca Mom.

Top 10 Medium Posts (medium staff):

Medium is growing, like a weed – but a good one.  In 2015, 1.9 million stories were posted.  In 2016, that number has grown to more than 7.5 million.  Think about this:  on a site with no paid writers, more than 2 billion words were written – almost all of it user generated (all of it if you take the Medium staff out of it).

Medium attracts 60 million visitors and grew 140% in a year.

If you haven’t tried it, it’s maybe the simplest content management system you’ll ever use.  Just click new story and write.  A handful of options (quote, bold, italic, headline size) is a highlight away.  It’s become popular with bloggers who want to write, but don’t want to maintain a website.  No fees, no code, no Word Press.

Fill disclosure:  I’ve written more than 150 articles for Medium.  I started up two publications and have become a writer/contributor to 8 other online magazines.

dv

Digital Vault:  The intersection of Digital, Media, and Marketing

I am writer, editor, and webmaster for a diverse collection of 66 current writer/contributors.

sr

SportsRaid:  Original reporting and curated sports data journalism

I am writer, editor, and webmaster for 29 current writer/contributors. This past year, I closed up my stand-alone website and moved it inside Medium.