With BMW officially signing up to be Medium's first advertiser, the blog publishing platform has been pushed back in to the public eye. But what actually is Medium and how can it benefit you?

From the co-founders of Twitter and Blogger, Medium is a platform for sharing content. We're all aware of the importance of content and Medium believe theres more to it. They are firm believers that words are the most important factor and theres much more to come in how we use them on the web.


If anyone should know about the future of the web and in particularly sharing content, these guys do! They've revolutionised the web experience on several occasions.

Why choose Medium though? They believe they have 3 factors that make it stand out compared to its competitors; 
1. It lets you focus on your words with no gratuitous sidebars, plug-ins, or widgets. While it's designed to look great on any device; it'll automatically adjust to the latest technology and even get better over time.
2. It's collaborative and you're not alone. Medium describe their community as being "part of a dynamic whole, where each part makes the others better."
3. It also helps you find your audience; "you’re publishing into a thriving, pulsing network — not a standalone web site, which you alone are responsible for keeping alive."

How does it work? 

Rather than charging on a cost per click (CPC) or cost per mille (CPM) level, BMW is being guaranteed on the total amount of minutes spent reading stories on Reform over the six-month period.

Even Hansen, Medium's senior editor, says: “We think time spent reading is a very promising new metric for valuing content online. We’ve developed some sophisticated tools for tracking active reading, which we call total time reading or TTR.

“We’ve learnt very quickly that rewarding TTR over clicks or unique visits changes the kind of content that gets made and shared – not just longer posts, thought there is that, but engaging and engrossing posts that are widely distributed and deeply read.”

Hansen adds, “We allow brands to build their own organic followers on site, so they don’t have to rely on renting an audience from publishers. And we provide an important context shift: by mixing all of the content on the site and allowing every post to compete on its own merits, brands can reach their audience more effectively than they would in a corporate blog silo or a branded microsite.”

Check out one of BMW's first sponsored posts and let us know your thoughts.