A Medium Corporation

A Medium Corporation

A Medium Corporation was founded in 2012 by Ev Williams, previously a co-founder of Blogger and Twitter. Williams served as CEO until 2021, when he was succeeded by Tony Stubblebine, who had been running the company's editorial partnership program. Medium started as a blogging platform and pivoted in 2017 to a subscription model, eliminating most advertising. The company operates a dual-sided marketplace: readers pay $5/month or $50/year for unlimited access, while writers earn payments based on member reading time. Medium's content spans journalism, personal essays, and technical writing, with no single sector dominating. The firm has raised $163M in venture funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, and Obvious Ventures. It does not publish AUM or investment activities. Medium employs roughly 200 people, primarily in San Francisco. The company reported profitability for the first time in 2021, with annual revenue estimated at over $50M. In February 2023, Medium laid off 7% of its staff, affecting about 15 employees (per multiple press reports). The firm also operates a content-licensing arm and a newsletter product. Medium's structural differentiator is its subscription-only model in a market dominated by ad-supported publishing. Its CEO Tony Stubblebine came from the editorial side, not finance, giving the firm an unusual operator background. The company has no disclosed investment mandate or family office structure; its corporate surplus is reinvested into platform development.