Publishers Try Out Membership System on Medium
In early April, Medium, the platform founded by Ev Williams, made a pitch to the publishing community: come to Medium, and we'll help you make money. There's not a publisher these days that isn't looking for new revenue streams, so it's not surprising that nearly 400 publishers have applied to participate in the beta version of Medium's revenue program, according to figures provided by a spokeswoman for the company. (She declined to say how many applicants have been accepted.)
There are both advertising and consumer revenue opportunities available for publishers that either put their entire site on Medium, as The Awl and Bill Simmons's new The Ringer have done, or publish a Medium edition of their publication, like far more companies have done.
Medium aspires to play a big role in the publishing ecosystem, offering publishers both a technical lifeline (in the form of a sleek, easy-to-use platform, and back-end support) and a set of options to make money. Whether Medium is able to become the power player -- and journalism savior -- it seems to want to become depends on how many publishers actually take the company up on the offer its making....MORE
Participating publishers can run links to promoted posts from advertisers at the bottom of articles and share a cut of the revenue with Medium.
Publications are also free to sell sponsorships on their own. The Ringer has a deal with Miller Lite, and there's a "Presented by Miller Lite" banner at the bottom of article pages.
A handful of publishers have also been testing out Medium's membership program, in which certain pieces of content are locked, available only to paying readers.
Serious Eats (a food site), Femsplain (a community for women) and Film School Rejects (movies and television) are the earliest three brands to experiment with membership on Medium, and all report being pleased with the early returns.
The default price for a publication membership on Medium is $5 per month, but Amber Discko, Femsplain's founder, said her members are allowed to give as much as they'd like beyond that. (Film School Rejects starts memberships at $3 per month.)...
