Saturday, 2 September 2017

#238 Another Medium tribute

It had been a good six months since I started writing on Medium. I'd written about thirty stories, no more than six minutes each. Three got into publications, which generally resulted in extra views. One or two got some comments.

My impression was that a lot of the 120 followers I'd amassed were fellow bloggers. People who followed people because they wanted to be followed. I thought the same about many of the 'like's my stories got. Some might have been genuine. Many would be in the hope that I'd reciprocate. I still liked that though. That sense of community.

When I first signed up, I found it almost as addictive as Youtube. Every day there were more stories to read. From alternative or satirical takes on the latest headlines, to straight-up news journalism, to poetry, to self-help, to heavy science and tech. The place was like a library but smaller and more immediately relevant.

The platform had taken some time out this year to redefine itself. A bit like me. They'd axed a third of their staff and announced that they were working on a new business model although they didn't know exactly what that was. This month, they started paying members based on the number of "like"s they received. The change received mixed responses but many people were just glad the business was innovating.

The site had reported something like 60 million visitors per month as of this year. That was comparable with some national newspapers and showed the benefit of being able to publish in one place that was accessible globally. I wondered how many of those visitors had subscribed.

I'd thought about writing a longer story about hurricanes to coincide with the weather in the USA this weekend but had decided to focus on revamping an older article instead, as I knew of a publication that might take it. I felt like I needed to try writing something longer though. I Googled the hurricane. There were still plenty of news articles appearing. Maybe it wasn't too late.


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