Medium
Summary
Publishing platform and also a publisher.
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: One of the leading products (#3-7)
Pricing: $5/month or $50/annum
Factors driving pricing: Additional features
Skills needed to set-up: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Requires audience sign-in to use: No, sign-in is optional
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: One of the leading products (#3-7)
Pricing: $5/month or $50/annum
Factors driving pricing: Additional features
Skills needed to set-up: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Requires audience sign-in to use: No, sign-in is optional
Pros
Open Source alternatives available
Transparent pricing model
Plain English TOS
Clear data policies
Allows data export
Allows data deletion
Shares diversity data
Cons
Newsworthy business problems - The long, complicated, and extremely frustrating history of Medium, 2012–present, Medium says it will compensate writers based on reading time, not claps
Lacks accessibility statement
Full Product Data Collection
Data collected January-February 2020
| Product name | Medium |
| Product URL | https://medium.com/ |
| Parent organisation | N/A |
| Workflow category | Audience engagement & monetisation |
| Date product founded | 2011 |
| Product description | Publishing platform and also a publisher. |
| What type of company or organisation is the product owned by? | Privately-owned company (or group) |
| Is the company profit-making? | No, loss-making |
| How is this product funded? | Subscriptions, VC investment |
| What market share does the tool have? | One of the leading products (#3-7) |
| Is there an Open Source alternative in this product space? | Yes. WordPress |
| When did the company last release new features? | September 2019: ‘Save to Medium’ bookmarking tool |
| Have they shared details of the product roadmap? | No |
| Is there talk of the product raising further investment? | No |
| Is there talk of the product being acquired? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy business issues or challenges in the last 12 months? | Yes. The long, complicated, and extremely frustrating history of Medium, 2012–present, Medium says it will compensate writers based on reading time, not claps |
| Is there a pricing model listed on the website? | Yes |
| How clear & transparent is this pricing model? | Very: full pricing listed |
| What is the range of prices offered? | Membership: $5/month or $50/annum |
| What factors drive higher pricing? | Additional features |
| What skills are needed to get this tool set up & usable? | Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it) |
| What skills are needed to USE this tool day-to-day? | Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it) |
| Does this tool use proprietary file formats for saving documents & outputs? | Defaults to common open standard file formats |
| Is the product reliant on 3rd-party APIs or interoperability to function? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy technical issues in the last 3 years? | No |
| How clear is the Terms of Service for users (i.e. publishing customers)? | Simplified, plain English TOS |
| Does the product have a data collection & usage policy on its website? (Can be a GDPR statement)? | Yes, comprehensive. |
| Is their data policy “GDPR everywhere”? | GDPR unclear on these details |
| Does the product require your audience to sign-in to use it? | No, sign-in is optional |
| IF SIGN IN REQUIRED: Does audience sign-in use 3rd party platforms? | Yes. Facebook authentication, Google authentication, Twitter authentication, User account also available |
| Does the public product website mention how to export or transfer your data to another service? | Yes: Export/transfer publisher content |
| Does the public product website mention how to delete your data? | Yes: for both publisher and audience data |
| Have there been any newsworthy security breaches with this product in the last 3 years? | No |
| Does the company have an accessibility statement on its website? | No / cannot find |
| Does the company release information on the diversity of the workforce? | Yes |