> ## Content Index
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# Medium hunting for a magazine acquisition — and a sustainable business model
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2018/12/medium-hunting-for-a-magazine-acquisition-and-a-sustainable-business-model/
- Published: 2018-12-19T22:56:24.000Z
- Updated: 2018-12-19T22:56:24.000Z
- Description: Is Medium slowly becoming the Huffington Post circa 2008? It's hunt for more content suggests it might be.
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: Medium, ev williams, business models, paywalls, blogging platorms

Clearly, there's a whole bunch of stuff I missed during my enforced hiatus from this blog, but this story about [Ev Williams and Medium](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-13/medium-s-ev-williams-is-said-to-discuss-buying-new-york-magazine?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) stuck in my mind:

> [Medium](https://medium.com/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), the publishing website run by [Twitter Inc.](https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/TWTR:US?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) co-founder Ev Williams, expressed interest in buying New York Magazine and other media properties, according to people familiar with the situation.

Uh…why?

> “We are going to significantly increase our investment in original editorial in the next year,” Williams, 46, said in a statement.

This is just bizarre. In an attempt to *finally* sort out a viable business model, Medium has pretty much ended up where it started. Remember back in 2013 when [Medium acquired *Matter*](https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/long-form-science-journalism-site-matter-acquired-by-medium/s2/a552702/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), a long-form science journalism start-up that launched on Kickstarter?

[It didn't end well](https://onemanandhisblog.com/2017/02/medium-kills-matter/).

## Medium-sized circles

And yet, here we are again, with Williams hunting around, looking for content businesses to acquire. Yes, perhaps adding a pool of high-profile writers would actually make Medium's subscriptions more attractive. Right now, there's an awful lot of poor fluff on there; terrible "lifestyle coaching" posts, some relentless marketing — and a few posts of value. 

> Things I am not going to do: take marriage advice from a never-married 23-year old “top writer in love, psychology, and relationships” on Medium.
> 
> — Adam Tinworth (@adders) [November 12, 2018](https://twitter.com/adders/status/1062005845410635776?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

Medium has developed a "voice" — it's fluffy, shiny, high-concept, but low depth. It's become the collective blog of the worst aspects of the Silicon Valley carpet-baggers, and that's not what Williams was hoping for. They've been steadily buying their way into higher quality by hiring some well-respected journalists. [Jessica Valenti](https://blog.medium.com/how-medium-works-with-writers-4c7844560887?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) and [Douglas Rushkoff](https://medium.com/@rushkoff?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) are [exclusive Medium columnists](https://blog.medium.com/how-medium-works-with-writers-4c7844560887?ref=onemanandhisblog.com). 

Acquiring a publication would suggest that the approach is working, and might be what they need. However, if they do this - what have they become? A content business with a pool of freebie content created by amateurs around it. They're the Huffington Post of 2008 with a paywall. And that's an awful long way from the original vision.

Added to that, the Medium editor, once the platform's crown jewel, has now been matched and — arguably — surpassed by [WordPress's Gutenberg](https://ma.tt/2018/11/a-gutenberg-faq/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) and [Ghost's Koenig](https://onemanandhisblog.com/2018/08/one-man-his-blog-is-now-running-on-ghost-2-0/) editors. What was once cutting edge is now looking stale. 

And it's still worrisome that after half a decade Medium is till shifting around, looking for a business model that works, and looking to spend big money while struggling to build significant revenue.