THE BUSINESS CHIEF INTERVIEW
process. When Google gave publishers more control over how their content feeds AI, he applauded in public. It is also why he refuses to mourn every corner of the creator economy, and he says it with the gumption of a man who spent years coaching writers and bloggers.“ A lot of the creator economy was writing at the level of what AI can write at. So you’ re f *** ed,” he says.“ I never thought that should have been a business in the first place.” His quarrel was never with writers so much as with the“ attention economy” that trained algorithms and authors alike to optimise for clicks rather than depth, rewarding the great title, Number 7 will shock you! – the promising intro and the article that never pays off. His deepest conviction about the craft is also a thesis on why AI prose often falls flat.“ We underestimate how much of reading is about an emotional connection with the author. Take the personality out of it, and it actually makes it harder to read.”
I don’ t need a hundred clicks. I need one great one
Tony Stubblebine CEO Medium
80 % startup, 20 % corporation, 100 % funded Medium itself took four years to get here. Tony walked into the 10-year-old company knowing the finances were a mess, expected two years of repair and found the interesting part only began once the team and culture finally clicked. The AI era supplied the payoff.“ We’ re shipping 100 times more than we used to be able to ship.” His formula for the company is practically a zen koan:“ 80 % startup. 20 % corporation. 100 % funded.” The corporate fifth is deliberate, because finance should do things“ the known, reliable, right way”, according to him, and Medium now pays for itself out of its own revenue, the part Tony fought hardest for after burning out on the old startup“ model”. In November Medium ships TK, a note-taking product built so writers can experiment without the pressure of publishing. It doubles as an olive branch to AI, working hand in hand with Claude, so a half-formed vent or stray idea gets plucked and punched up on demand.“ No word is wasted now, because you don’ t have to publish it,” Tony explains.“ You can just say,‘ well, at least I captured that thought or feeling or idea, and when I need it, Claude will pluck it and use it.’” Too much AI and it turns into“ slop” – midwit and uninspired – and he’ s betting the weird, idiosyncratic human stuff that uses AI as a tool floats to the top.
48 November 2026