The Biggest Change In The History Of Medium Just Happened
Oh look!
It’s Tom again.
I’m here to annoy you. ;)
Go ahead and write your articles about me after you get done reading this and remember.. all press is good press. 😘
I’m here to discuss something ginormous.
Tony Stubblebine just became the CEO of Medium.
Here are my thoughts.
1. Congrats Tony!
I don’t really know Tony that well. I don’t know if we’ve ever spoken before. He has commented on an article or two of mine if I remember correctly, and I really respect everything he’s done here on Medium for creators.
So I wanted to issue a big congratulations to Tony.
I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better person to replace Ev.
2. “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?”
It’s no secret that the reach on Medium has tanked over the last two years.
In my most recent article that was oh so well received by people, two of my three reasons for not writing on Medium anymore had to do with the algorithm.
The other reason was that there’s so many insufferable idiots here who drink from the teat of drama like Robin Arryn from Game of Thrones.
Just check my comments section.
They proved my point for me.
With this news of Tony taking over, I can’t help but think to myself…
So… you’re telling me there’s a chance?
There’s a chance that a guy who has always been FOR the creator from day freaking one might turn things around?
There’s a chance we might be able to usher in the golden age of Medium once again?
This is like Aragorn returning to become the King or something.
Ev isn’t Sauron here. He’s more like the Steward, you know?
I bet he absolutely crushes cherry tomatoes in his spare time.
3. The truth is, I don’t know what Tony wants to do
Maybe Tony wants to largely keep things the way that they are.
Maybe he doesn’t share the same ideas with me about how Medium used to be.
I do know that he’s been one of us since the beginning. He’s been a creator and publication owner.
I think he’s seen a side of this platform that was impossible for Ev to see because of his sheer use of Medium as a creator.
Ev was too busy running Medium.
Tony was busy using it.
So he probably has a completely different perspective here.
Who knows?
4. I’m cautiously optimistic
I’m not SUPER optimistic to be honest.
Medium has been so disappointing for so long that I’ll believe things have changed when I see it.
When will things start changing?
Oh, I don’t know.
Probably by the end of the year we’ll start seeing stuff.
I don’t know if fixing the algorithm is the top priority for Tony. I don’t know if Tony even thinks there’s a problem with the algorithm.
I guess time will tell, no?
In the meantime, congratulations Tony.