This guide will tell you more about Medium publications and will walk you through the process of creating your own publication.
What is a Medium publication?
Medium publications are shared spaces for stories written around a common theme or topic, usually by multiple authors.
As such, publications can be created for many different purposes. Some example uses of Medium publications include:
- An online magazine, a publication with a fixed publication staff that posts stories around a specific topic
- A community publication, a publication that accepts stories published around Medium
- A company blog, a publication that is created specifically to share company news
- A collection of individual stories by a single author that are parts of a larger whole
Key features of Medium publications
- Dedicated publication homepage with a customizable layout
Each publication has their own customizable publication homepage, where publication editors can feature stories published in their publication. In the publication's settings, you can add a header with a title and/or logo, set up a number of sections with customizable layouts, and add feature pages which act as tabs housing specialized content. - Support for multiple contributors: writers and editors & story submission system
Each publication is owned by a single user account—the publication's owner. The owner account has full rights to manage the publication and can add other users as publication editors and writers.- Editors can review, edit and publish or reject stories submitted by writers, as well as add their own stories, modify the publication's layout, and add or remove publication writers.
- Writers are regular contributors who can submit their stories to the publication.
- Newsletter system
Publication editors can write and send custom email newsletters to the publication followers to connect with their readers and further build their audience. - Detailed stats page
Publications have a detailed stats page that allows publication editors to easily check how all the submitted stories are performing. - URL in the format: medium.com/your-publication-name
Step 1: Create your Medium publication
Who can create a Medium publication?
Creating a Medium publication is free. You must have a Medium account to create a Medium publication.
- Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner of the page and choose Publications from the menu.
- Click New publication.
- Enter your publication's name, description, and upload your publication avatar. These steps are required to create a publication.
- Additionally, you can:
Add a logo that appears at the top of all posts in the publication.
Add contact information.
Any email address or Twitter/Facebook link is public.
Add tags.
Add editors and writers to your publication. - Click Next in the lower right corner to go to the publication layout screen. Under the Homepage screen, you customize your publication's homepage.
- Click Create to create your publication.
Step 2: Customize your publication layout
Once you create your Medium publication, you can start customizing your publication homepage. On your homepage, add a publication title or image logo on your header, as well as your background image. Additionally, you can add sections where your submitted stories will appear, customize your navigation bar, as well as make separate pages called feature pages.
Step 3: Add publication editors and writers
You can now add users that will co-create your publication with you—publication editors and writers.
Step 4: Submit stories to the publication
Time to fill your publication with content. You and your publication editors and writers can submit stories to your publication. Submitted stories will appear on your publication homepage, based on what publication sections you've set up.
Stories submitted by publication writers need to be reviewed and approved by editors to be included in your publication. This process is explained here.
Common questions
Each Medium user can own up to seven Medium publications. There's no limit of publications a user can particpate in.