Learn from the greatest technology leaders every week on the NEW ECONOMIES podcast. Subscribe to never miss a future episode.
Hey Readers
If you work in tech, you’ve probably heard the term “new media” — a new wave of the creator economy where creators are becoming the preferred distribution channels for brands and businesses.
To better understand new media, the creator economy, and what the future of writing actually looks like, I spoke with Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Medium, to unpack what’s really happening.
We also talked about Medium’s own journey. As many of you know, the company has faced its share of challenges: losing $2.5M a month at its peak, paying back $37M in overdue loans, making painful layoffs during COVID, and facing the enormous task of turning the business around.
In this episode, we explore
The $2.5M Monthly Leak: How Tony restructured a “toxic” financial situation and turned a struggling unicorn profitable in under two years.
The Death of Free Traffic: Why the era of “free customers” from Google is ending and how to pivot your business model before it’s too late.
The “Barbell Effect” in Content: Why the middle class of creators is disappearing while AI slop and high-end human expertise move to opposite ends of the spectrum.
The Rise of Private Walled Gardens: Why the best writers are moving their content into private groups to protect their IP from AI scrapers.
AI as a Productivity “Power-Up”: Why writing is currently one year behind programming in the AI-adoption curve - and how to use it to 10x your output without losing your soul.
The Expert Economy vs. The Creator Economy: Why “living a life” is the only defensible moat left in a world of instant AI generation.
The New Rules of Distribution: How to build a “timeless” media brand that survives AI summaries and thrives in a world of subscription fatigue.
Watch or listen now on… YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify
In this episode, we unpack:
(0:00) Intro
(2:10) What is New Media?
(5:20) What is good content today?
(8:37) How did we end up here as creators?
(12:25) Medium’s founding story
(19:25) Medium’s lowest era
(27:40) Tony’ toughest moments as CEO
(31:25) Should creators be concerned about AI?
(41:00) Will LLMs compensate creators?
(46:12) Is The Creator Economy dead?
(51:50) Medium’s next 12 months
Links mentioned in this episode:
NEW MEDIA (www.new-media.co)
Medium (www.medium.com)
Books:
1. How to win friends and influence people
2. The First 90 days
Content pieces:
1. Want to Raise Venture Capital More Easily? Clean Up Your Own Shite First
TK App (https://medium.com/tk)
Follow Ollie on X (https://x.com/ollieforsyth)
Follow Tony on X (https://x.com/tonystubblebine)
If you enjoyed this edition, help sustain our work by clicking ❤️ and 🔄 at the top of this post.
