‘Medium will eliminate its Promoted Stories ad product following layoffs’ – Marketing Land

Tim Peterson says, “Medium’s advertising product never made it out of beta.

The publishing platform created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams will shut down its Promoted Stories ad product that had been released in beta in April 2016, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The decision to eliminate its ad product coincides with Medium rethinking its business model and laying off 50 employees, or one-third of its staff, on Wednesday. Williams announced the latter moves in a blog post published on Wednesday, but he did not specify the status of Medium’s advertising business. A Medium spokesperson referred a request for comment to the blog post.

Medium introduced Promoted Stories in April as a way for the platform and publishers, like The Awl, The Bold Italic and Pacific Standard, that call Medium home to make money. Advertisers would pay to have their own Medium posts placed at the bottom of those publishers’ Medium posts. Brands like Bose, SoFi and Intel were among the first to buy Medium’s ad product, but it’s unclear how Promoted Stories performed and whether the ad format could lay the foundation for a sustainable revenue stream. Based on Williams’ blog post, it seems to have laid the wrong foundation”.

Medium will eliminate its Promoted Stories ad product following layoffs

Marketing Land