Medium Publications

In the beginning, there were collections. And they were good.

But as Medium grew, the intended purpose of our collections became diluted. They were torn between being vessels of curation and more focused, traditional online magazines.

We looked at the way collections were being used and felt them evolving from their initial purpose. Individual stories were being included in multiple collections, leading to a lot of repetition. Collection editors were unable to keep up with the mass submissions. And ultimately, collections were neither becoming destination locations in themselves nor delivering on the promised distribution of unique, quality content. Last year, we began to change the way they function.

In continuing to improve their quality and purpose, we have now renamed collections to “Publications.”

“Ok, what’s the difference?”

• Publications are focused.
  In the past, anyone could submit to a collection, and editors could add any story to their collection. For most collections (and we reviewed many of them), this prevented them from developing any cohesiveness. To correct this, stories can now only appear in a single publication, and writers need to become invited members of that publication to be published in it. We feel this will help publications develop their own unique identities.
• Publications look great.
  At one point, collections were a simple list of stories. Then, we gave you the tools to customize your collection layout and choose what stories you want to feature and how you want them presented. We have more features in the pipeline to further brand your publication and the stories in it, such as logos, mastheads, and an expanded “about us” section.
• Publications are destinations.
  In the last year, we have launched several of our own in-house publications: Backchannel, Cuepoint, Matter, The Message, The Nib, and Vantage. They have quickly become the first stop on the internet for readers looking for the most informative and well-written articles on music, tech, photography, and more. Every day new companies, universities, artists, and authors launch new publications specializing in their area of expertise.

As we continue to develop and redesign the publication system, we are also working to expand and improve the Medium network for the individual writer. While being in a publication is a great way to reach new audiences, we believe your own connections on Medium are an extremely powerful form of distribution, and we are constantly building new tools and features to expand the discovery of your writing on Medium.

We also recognize the desire to and value of curating stories on Medium, and continue to expand the means to do this. With the new ability to embed Medium stories on Medium, many users have begun creating periodic posts of their favorite finds.

We are extremely excited about the direction in which publications are going and want to do all we can to help you create a quality, vibrant, and effortless reading and writing experience. Please send us any feedback to yourfriends@medium.com.