[avocade]

The usual sensationalistic headline, but the gist of the story is crystal clear: ads and writing is an inherent and probably impossible-to-solve conflict of interest.

The media that won't change their business model during the next couple of years will probably be extremely diminished in quality, and thus influence. Can't wait.

(And no, the latest fad of "native advertising", with ads disguising as articles, is not the answer. Hopefully this will fall to the wayside as more people learn critical thinking and sourcing [I don't see much evidence for this yet but I'm very hopeful ;) ])

But, the risk of losing the cadre of serious journalists at the large outlets that today are struggling, and who rightfully demand a good salary for their critical work (as members of the fourth estate), is a real one which needs to be solved. If Medium can be a part of forging a new way ahead, then more power to Ev. Haters always gonna hate, often without much thought, self-reflection, or humility.

[TheOtherHobbes]

Ads + Writing worked just fine for most of the last century when print was the only option.

The dead elephant in the room is the fact that the online ad experience is the most irritating and least useful ad experience in all of history.

I use Google to search for A Certain Thing to buy, I buy it, and BAM - I spend the next month getting ads for the same Certain Thing.

The ads are completely useless to me, because I'm no longer interested in buying A Certain Thing. The ads are useless for the advertiser, because they're paying for nothing. And the ads themselves are usually animated and irritating anyway.

Print ads, especially in the glossy predecessors of what Medium would like to be, were often professional, creative, and at least potentially interesting.

The online ad industry has never understood the difference between adding value to readers and repeatedly smacking them around the head in a misguided attempt to force them to click the BUY NOW button.

Medium missed the point of all this. The content varies from outstanding to not so good, the design is great. But it's a bit late to be thinking about monetisation, because now it's just replaying the mistakes made by every other media platform over the last decade and a half.

[BinaryIdiot]

> I use Google to search for A Certain Thing to buy, I buy it, and BAM - I spend the next month getting ads for the same Certain Thing.

Yeah Google ads are awful now. The best bang for your bank, ads wise? Facebook and Super Bowl commercials.

> Print ads, especially in the glossy predecessors of what Medium would like to be, were often professional, creative, and at least potentially interesting.

When was the last time you purchased a product with print ads? I used to subscribe to a ton of magazines a little over a decade ago but cancelled them all because for every 1-2 articles of content there were 3-4 ads. It got to the point where I could finish a magazine, cover to cover, in minutes because of how many ads were in there.

[bambax]

Amazon ads are no better, and for the exact same reason. I'm old enough to remember when Amazon first appeared, everyone was talking about how they were going to be able to make magic suggestions. Turns out, all the magic is just telling you to buy again what you JUST BOUGHT.

Netflix recommendation engine isn't amazing either -- except that, in the case of Netflix, I often like to watch a show a second time.

[jackgolding]

Lots of people on /r/juststart think Facebook ads are no good. On firms with lots of brand equity I've foudn both FB and Google to be good. Display ads - not so much

[Chyzwar]

You miss the point. Adds are not to make you buy product. They primary focus is building brand and product awareness. When you next time buy Certain Thing you will subconsciously pick product from the brand you received 6 months of adds. Just check your shopping basket next time in supermarket, most products will be branded well advertised and pretty packaged. Humans are really shallow...

Medium is failing because they are overspending and do not have really a product. Medium should have light adds and option for add-free subscription. It should share some profit with best writers to create more high quality content. Medium should have also agreements with mainstream media to republish some articles. And finally they should have enough machine learning and with twitter that they should own PR.