Medium's Evan Williams to Publishers: Your Website Is Toast

I recently started my own site http://computationalimagination.com for branded writing and interviews. I absolutely wouldn't consider publishing on medium. I just don't see any benefit to giving up control and branding. Any consistent audience that I build is mine with clear branding not: "Oh what was that good article I read on Medium the other day? The author, hmm Mike something or other?"

As a reader I never start at Medium - the only way I ever read something there is through references from HN or reddit

As a general philosophy, I like fine grained production of content. That is, lots of small independent developers, publishers, writers, etc.

For somethings, like giving Google specific permissions to make my life easier, I am willing to go with huge companies when I want things like Google Now to work. It is worth the privacy hit (sometimes) to have voice interfaces to my calendar, what music I want to listen to, generating quick notes, warnings of air flight delays, etc.

But, for content, I like to go to the sources (like democracynow.org) not the aggregators. While I enjoy reading some content on Medium, I can't help but think the writers are better off having their own domain and work long term to develop their personal brand. I think that social media like Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter have value for publishing references to your work that is on your site, on your domain. I think of social media as micro-blogging: stuff that is short and doesn't derserve a full length article on your own site. Social media is also great for pointing people to good writing on people's sites.

So, I would say go with huge companies (Apple for Siri, Google for Google Now, Microsoft for Cortana) for specific services that have value. For everything else, support small producers.

I'm guessing the author meant 'cofounder' and not 'confounder'. Although that might be factually correct as well.

Let's examine info diet like we do real food. Imagine you work in a dense part of town that regularly features a number of food trucks that show up around lunchtime. You have your favorite styles and vendors, and know what to expect from them.

Medium is like a set of unmarked vans where the cooks and cuisine change every day. Sometimes there will be something you don't normally get (I would kill for a decent Indian spot in this town) but other times you would rather have what you're comfortable with, and enough subpar experiences would make you wary of coming back.

I used to read Medium, a lot. They had some interesting slice-of-life pieces I doubt I'd ever see at the New York Times or the Economist. But nowadays it seems like a lot of self-congratulatory startup humblebrag stories, and for most of them I'm starting to wonder if their prominence has less to do with the quality of their writing and more about their relationship with the Medium staff.

All of those worked out how to make money for Evan Williams quite well, though, so there's that.