An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Medium, the San Francisco-based online publishing platform founded in 2012, has laid off 50 employees, or roughly one-third of its staff. The company will also close offices in New York and Washington, DC. Ev Williams, Medium’s CEO, wrote in a lengthy post on Wednesday that the company would be changing its business model despite ending 2016 as “our best year yet.” He blamed the entire concept of “ad-driven media on the Internet” as the root of the company’s shortcomings. As Williams, who is also a co-founder of Twitter, wrote: “It simply doesn’t serve people. In fact, it’s not designed to. The vast majority of articles, videos, and other “content” we all consume on a daily basis is paid for — directly or indirectly — by corporations who are funding it in order to advance their goals. And it is measured, amplified, and rewarded based on its ability to do that. Period. As a result, we getwell, what we get. And it’s getting worse.”
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