Medium looking to introduce a consumer subscription product in Q1 2017

Popular online publishing platform Medium has recently scaled back its operations to streamline its business model. And it now seems that the company has figured out the next technological upgrade for their platform. Today, at the Upfront Summit in Los Angeles, Medium CEO Ev Williams confirmed that they will soon release a new consumer-focused subscription product. The first iteration of the same should land in the first quarter of 2017.

During his fireside session, Williams discussed the current online publishing ecosystem and the outlook of his company towards the same. It then swerved into details of Medium’s recent activity of workforce layoffs and office shutdown. These measures, he mentioned, were much-awaited and helped them take a new direction with subscriptions. The company set out to build a different business model for publishers but sold it soul to the ad devil on the way to its success.

The company had set out to build a different business model for publishers but sold its soul to the ad sales devil on the way to their success. It diverted their focus on bringing some big-time publishers to the platform by providing them a noticeable revenue stream. But publishers, as expected, instead of focusing on the quality of content started employing ways to drive traffic and views to their stories. Thus, the company gave up on this used-up model to follow a leaner approach and develop something far reaching.

And, the publishing giant is now working on a product to “upgrade your Medium experience.” Though details about the said product launch are currently bleak but this will be the company’s attempt to monetize the platform. Thus, it would be interesting to see how it pushes the envelope of making people pay up for subscribing to an individual author or a blog. While talking about the same on stage, Williams urged everyone to subscribe to this new service when it launches in the coming months.