More changes at publishing platform Medium: Evan Hansen, who’s been overseeing the company’s editorial strategy, is departing.
Hansen joined Medium three years ago. (He was previously editor in chief at Wired.com.) His role has been described variously as senior editor, editorial director and head of content labs.
Looks like he’s sticking with the theme of leading editorial at a tech company — he’ll be editor in chief at Twitter’s livestreaming platform Periscope. In a Medium post, Hansen doesn’t say much about his new role, but he wrote; “I still love the written word and Medium, but I honestly can’t think of many things more exciting than helping build a new platform with mobile phones and real time video.”
Fusion’s Felix Salmon reported that this was in the works and suggested that this made sense as part of a broader shift at Medium, as the company that is constantly asked “Are you a platform or a publisher?” comes down squarely on the side of being a platform. (Steven Levy — like Hansen, an alum of Wired — is reportedly in talks to leave his role as editor in chief at Medium’s tech site Backchannel and return to Conde Nast.)
This also comes after Medium announced that a number of independent publishers are moving exclusively to the platform and that it has raised $50 million in additional funding.