Monday 14th September: How Medium is succeeding as a 'platisher'

September 14, 2020

Good morning! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Esther.

This weekend I've learned about the existence of words such as 'phygital', 'contvertising' and 'tradigital'. If those have you shuddering, this might be a story to skip over this early on a Monday, because it looks at 'platishers'.

A platisher - platform publisher - theoretically combines the scalability afforded by user generated content with the prestige journalism produced by traditional media outlets.

Here, Simon Owens does his trademark deep dive into how this much-derided concept is actually working at Medium, and why it failed at places like HuffPost and Forbes. Owens believes Medium has come closer than pretty much any other company to achieving the equilibrium between running both a publishing and a platform operation, and offers some strategic lessons for publishers looking to incorporate more user-generated content themselves.

I've remained fairly skeptical about Medium's ability to properly monetise its model but its numbers so far seem to be growing steadily, and there was definitely some food for thought in this piece.

The Correspondent, famous for their 2018 ‘unbreak the news’ crowdfunding campaign, are branching out into audio to bring their journalism to members in new ways. I caught up with CEO Ernst-Jan Pfauth to find out why they chose to launch the app, and how they are hoping it will enhance the experience for their members.

Future's success is the lead topic of discussion in this week's podcast news round-up, so make sure to have a listen. In short, the publisher's clever investments, eCommerce push and specialist titles have helped them weather coronavirus and put them on a track to beat market expectations this year.

Another great profile from Flashes and Flames looking at a deal which could make Penske, which owns Variety, Deadline, Rolling Stone and Music Business Worldwide, the B2B leader in the entertainment industry. The publisher is believed to be in negotiations to acquire The Hollywood Reporter, as well as Billboard and Vibe.

This week's podcast:

This episode Josh Schollmeyer, co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief of online men’s magazine MEL, takes us through working at the legacy print behemoth Playboy, why that convinced him men’s magazines needed to change and the branded media business model that is at the heart of MEL’s success.

Entries for the Publisher Podcast Awards open today at 12pm. If you've been working on a podcast you think deserves recognition, now is your chance to enter it. Entries are free, and will close in November.