Medium, the new kind of blogging, writing, or story platform, has launched something it calls a Digital Magazine. The concept is perfectly simple and attractive: collect good stories that focus on the same theme during a month. Very timely, Medium’s first digital magazine is about trust. Specifically, the trust big online brands, like Google and Facebook have, or don’t have.
Here is the introduction to the Trust Issues from Medium:
Technology’s crisis of trust. We are living through a crisis of trust, and it’s changing our lives in significant and meaningful ways. That’s why Medium’s first monthly magazine Trust Issues examines the state of trust in 2018 — with new stories publishing every weekday throughout June. For the magazine’s inaugural week, we take a close look at technology, and the ways that new devices, products, and platforms are shaping our trust in one another, and in the industry that creates them.
https://medium.com/s/trustissues
Medium is no longer completely free. For reading more than three stories, you have to pay 5 dollars a month.
Now, this is getting really interesting. Remember the times when we paid for newspapers and magazines? We paid for the specific newspapers and magazines because we trusted the information they delivered. Many people pay for the digital editions of The Economist and The New York Times for the same reason.
Is Medium becoming or trying to establish itself as one of these trusted brands we are willing to pay for? Medium may have a new way of sourcing information and getting writers to publish on the platform, but the endgame is the same: people pay for the brands they trust.
Read it. Here are some of story titles:
- How Trump Voters Decide Who to Trust
Google keywords, fact-checking the news, and the occasional sophistication of conservative media analysis
Francesca Tripodi - Yes, the Media Still Matters
Journalism experts on the era of ‘fake news’ — and what lies ahead
Claire Zulkey - Trust Me On This
A legacy journalist in the era of fake news
nancy gibbs - Love In a Time of True Crime
Women are taught to fear the bogeyman. The real threat is closer to home.