Twitter co-founder Ev Williams creates a new media company called Matter Studios
Medium's time as a "platisher" looks to be nearing an end.
Medium and Matter are parting ways, with the editorial operation becoming Matter Studios and looking to expand into broader media operations and other...mediums (sorry).
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Matter announced the split in -- what else -- a Medium post on Monday.
"For starters: It’s not a website. It’s not a website," wrote Mark Lotto, who will serve as co-editorial lead along with Hillary Frey, who had most recently served as executive editor of Fusion (and is his wife). "Matter won’t even be a publication, not anymore, or a publisher, not precisely. We’ve been describing it as sort of a studio and sort of an incubator."
Medium acquired Matter back in April 2013 after the publication launched via Kickstarter. Matter became one of Medium's most popular and thoughtful verticals, even winning a prestigious magazine award earlier this year.
Back then, nobody quite knew what to make of Medium. The most common question asked -- is it a publisher or a platform -- left it with the uncomfortable moniker of "platisher."
That word can finally be laid to rest. Medium is clearly focusing on being a platform for writing. The other editorial operations that no longer operate under Medium include political comic site The Nib and sports vertical The Cauldron.
Those shifts have come amid a broader restructuring that began almost a year ago that included deep cuts to its editorial budget.
That doesn't mean Medium is getting out of the content game entirely. Instead, the platform appears to be partnering with outside talent, such as Bill Simmons. His new website, The Ringer, will be hosted on Medium and is billed as the platform's first "premium publisher."
As for Matter, Studios ambitions are pretty high.
"Essentially: Matter is going to be for digital storytellers what HBO and Amazon Studios are for TV makers, or what the best incubators are for startups," Lotto wrote.
Matter already boasts an impressive roster of journalists and industry veterans.
Medium founder and CEO Ev Williams will remain involved as chairman and owner.
Along with Williams, Matter's board includes former president of MTV Stephen Friedman, comedian Akilah Hughes, Matter co-founder Bobbie Johnson, New York Times foreign correspondent Lydia Polgreen, former Obama 2012 social media strategy head Laura Olin and documentarian Fisher Stevens.
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Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
