<filename>authors/apps/articles/tests/stories.py
small_story = 'this is a simple story'

medium_story = """
One year, I watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2003 Jim Carey version)
 every single day of December until Christmas. It’s my favorite Christmas
  movie of all time, and I get excited every time it’s on Freeform’s 25 Days
   of Christmas. I’m a Grinchophile if you will.

This year, as I embarked on my first Grinch watching experience of the seaso
n (homemade peppermint mocha in my favorite Christmas mug, plaid PJs,
and setting up my Christmas tree), I noticed a lot more than how cute Cindy Lou
Who is and how oddly relatable the Grinch is.

The Grinch might be the most culturally relevant Christmas movie of 2018.

I know, you’re probably thinking I’m crazy. “What about Love Actually?!”
“Um, Elf?” Of course, I love pretty much every Christmas movie
 (except A Christmas Story 2… not sure what that was). The Grinch, however,
  tackles so many issues that we’re dealing with today, and it’s pretty easy
  to miss it.

I know Dr. Suess had a deeper intention in creating The Grinch aside from
entertainment,but there is a lot more to the movie than one might think.
Now, all we need is a sequel because I really want to see more of the Grinch
and <NAME>’s love.
Issues of waste and the environment

There’s a very obvious theme of overbuying for Christmas in the film,
but the Grinch understands waste above all else. At the beginning of the film,
he notes that it’s “crazy what those Whos will throw away.”
After the Whobilation,
 the Grinch says that everything the Whos buy their friends and
 family for Christmas ends up in the landfill he lives in.
By the end of the movie, the Whos start to understand that they focused
too much on buying gifts for their family and friends rather than spending
time with them for Christmas. While this is a small portion of the film,
it definitely looks at how much waste we produce,
especially in terms of overbuying and focusing on gifts as the main aspect of
Christmas. Loneliness during the holidays
As much as he doesn’t want to admit it,
the Grinch is very lonely in his lair away from Whoville. He talks to himself,
comes down to Whoville to be around the people, and asks Max for his
“sedative” to get rid of “those pesky memories” the day before Christmas.
(Isn’t this supposed to be for children?!).
Not everyone has friends or family to celebrate with during the holiday season,
even though this is supposed to be the most magical time of the year.
People also might have traumatic or sad memories around this time.
This can lead to a lot of loneliness and sadness,
and people who don’t experience this might not always understand.
The Grinch really showcases this, and
it’s such a good reminder to be there for the people you love during this time.

 

Bullying

<NAME> is the #WOAT. The way he treats the Grinch both when they were
children, as well as in adulthood, is unacceptable, and the film shines a
light on what this can do for people who experience it. The Grinch was bullied
during Christmas, so he has a negative outlook on Christmas as a whole because
of it.
Not to mention, the mayor humiliates Cindy Lou Who after the Grinch takes the
presents.(What a jerk!). The film highlights how mean the Whos are to the
Grinch and how it’s affected him throughout his life.
I’d suggest discussing this aspect of the film with everyone you watch it with,
especially children!

 

Respecting people’s differences

Cindy Lou Who, on the other hand, is the #GOAT.
She takes a chance on the Grinch when everyone
else had ostracized him from their society.
She is there for him when no one else is.
She even invites him to the Whobilation and nominates him as the Holiday
Cheermeister! Cindy stops focusing on how the Grinch is different from
everyone else and starts focusing on how similar he is to the rest of the Whos.
She wants everyone to be together at Christmastime, including the Grinch.
Cindy is definitely onto something, and I think we could all be a little more
welcoming to others’ differences, particularly during the holidays.

 

Finding joy after hardship

The Whobilation wasn’t necessarily a positive experience for the Grinch, and
 then he goes on to, you know, steal Christmas and all. However,
 he comes around, his heart grows to its normal size, and he finds happiness
 in Christmastime. He sees how happy the Whos are, even without presents and
 trees and feasts, and he joins them in celebration.

Yeah, Grinch went off the deep end a little bit, but he comes around. If
you’re dealing with something, you, too, can come back from it.
"""

huge_story = """
In “The rationalization of publishing,” I argued that subscriptions for
publishing on a wide scale are inevitable — and that’s a good thing. Now I
 will describe Medium’s unique approach to this opportunity.
First, in case you’re not aware, Medium has a subscription offering called
 Medium Membership. We launched it just over a year ago. Here’s what growth
  has looked like since then:
After a strong start (when people were really just subscribing because they
 believed in and wanted to support Medium’s mission — ), and a mediocre middle
  (when we were figuring it out), we’re now seeing not only more subscribers,
   but higher-percentage gains every month this year (accelerating growth).
The factors driving this took us a while to figure out and then get into
motion, but they’re gratifyingly simple. In fact, there are just two major 🔑s:
Put great stories behind the metered paywall.
Help people find the great stories they care about.
In these ways, Medium is not unlike other digital media subscription
businesses like the Washington Post or The New Yorker — or even Spotify and
 Netflix. We sell content on a subscription basis. Like most paywalled sites,
  we give some stories away for free (currently, it’s three per month). But
   unlike most paywalled publications, we rely solely on subscriptions (no
    advertising), and we have a mix of original and non-original content.
     Medium is also an open platform, which makes it different than most
      premium subscription products — except for Spotify and other music
       services, which anyone can upload to and get paid (if they know what
        they’re doing).
Let me break down the various aspects of of the Medium model. Most of them are
 not, on their own, unique to Medium. But in combination, they create a
  powerful formula:
We offer a lot for a little.
As I wrote over here, I believe bundles are a large part of the future of
 content monetization. That doesn’t mean there won’t be lots of individuals
  subscriptions and patronage and other models that work — all of which help
   serve the cause. (It also doesn’t mean writers and publishers won’t be paid
    well.)
Medium is one of the largest bundles of original content of its type, so it’s
 a great value for readers. And it’s definitely the easiest way to get paid
  directly for writing, so we’re seeing rapid growth in people who may not
   have written on Medium before.
We welcome ideas and stories from everywhere.
I sometimes describe Medium as a system for moving ideas between brains.
 You could describe most of the internet that way, but at Medium we specialize
  in ideas that require a little space and thought — or, as we also like to
   say, smart thinking on things that matter. This has always been the point.
    And if that’s the point, why would you limit your source brains to those
     who work for you — or even those you know?
More than 50,000 writers publish on Medium every week: politicians, professors,
 storytellers, experts in your field, and people you’ve never heard of. The
  best of these stories contain knowledge and insight that can’t be found
   anywhere else. We take pride that we offer a level playing field for
    diverse voices from everywhere to be heard. By curating and organizing
     these stories, we have the equivalent of a publication with more talent
      than any other — and it’s growing all the time.
As it relates to the business model, a subset of the stories on Medium are
 behind our paywall and contribute to our Membership. Our Partner Program is
  designed for writers and publishers who wish to get paid for their work.
Our editorial team commissions original stories and uplevels organic ones.
We have no writers on staff and don’t plan to add any (except for marketing).
 However, we have a growing editorial team that is commissioning world-class
  writing by professional journalists and authors. The team is also partnering
   with some of the world’s most compelling writers on ambitious projects
    (like this one we just did with <NAME>).
We’ve also found that many great writers — especially, people who are experts
 in their field — are writing on Medium already. Since a little editorial
  guidance — a better headline, some nice art, a copy edit — can help stories reach even more people, we’re now working with folks to take their work from good to great and help it get the audience it deserves. This is a very efficient way to get more professional quality stories.
We partner with publishers on and off platform.
Our goal is to offer the best selection of insightful stories — not news — you
 can get anywhere. To do this, we go beyond what our editorial team and
  individuals on the platform create and partner with other publishers in two
   ways:
First, there are hundreds of small publishers on Medium that do original work.
 Some of them are in our Partner Program, which means they publish their
  stories behind our paywall and can get paid. We work with some of those
  s publishers on a contractual basis to do original projects (like this great
   series on California politics).
Second, we license content from major publishers that are not on Medium.
 By doing this, we give our readers a curated selection of excellent stories
  that they can read and interact with in our ad-free environment every day.
We use personalization to deliver the best for each reader.
Finally, a key element of our model — and a differentiator for us — is
 personalization. We serve a broad set of interests — and we serve many of
  those interests deeply. We collect data — both explicit data (which we get
   when readers follow specific topics and writers) and implicit data (which
    is informed by which stories you read) — in order to suggest stories that
     we think you will be interested in.
Unlike the vast majority of publishers, we never sell your data to third
 parties or leak your activity through ads.
Also unlike how most of the internet works, we do not only surface the very
 latest stuff. People come to Medium to get the smartest thinking on things
  they care about. If you care about, say, entrepreneurship or relationships,
   the best thing you could read today was very unlikely to have been
    published in the last 48 hours. But most of the internet treats anything
     that isn’t new like bad fruit. This is a huge detriment to readers and
      writers alike. It encourages people to spend their time on the novel in
       lieu of the worthwhile, and it discourages creators from investing in
        things of lasting value.
We solve this by suggesting stories based on their current relevance, not
 their publish date. Some topics require more freshness than others, but if
  you see older stories coming up in your feed, it’s because it’s stood the
   test of time.
A huge benefit of this is it allows Medium and our writers to make bigger
 investments in stories, because we amortize that investment over months
  instead of days. And it means we have a continually growing library of
   stories that subscribers gain access to (making their subscription a better
    deal every day). This is a big reason our subscriber growth is
     accelerating — and we’re just scratching the surface.
That’s how Medium works today. And, again, it’s working well. One thing I
 didn’t mention is that all aspects of Medium are growing — not just
  subscriptions. (We don’t use it as a core metric internally, but we often
   get asked about unique visitors for comparison sake. That’s at 80M for the
    last 30 days.) With these basic mechanics established, we can continue to
     grow and invest, which will allow us to do a better and better job
      serving both readers and writers.
That said, we have a lot of work to do. Here’s what’s on our short-term list:
Improving quality and relevance
Our most important job is to deliver great stories to readers. And we have
 great stories. We also have not-great stories. And we don’t always manage to
  help the best get seen. We’re obsessed with helping the best quality stuff
   get in front of people — as well as that each person really cares about.
    And we know we have a ways to go here.
One of the big learnings we’ve had from the last year is that you can measure
 and algorithmically optimize for engagement — as all ad-driven platforms do.
  But that’s not the same thing as user value, which is very hard to measure
   and algorithmically optimize for.
Another way to say this is we can use machines to figure out what stories will
 get the most reads, but we still need humans to know if they’re actually good
  (true, useful, well-written, not just disguised marketing…). We want to
   promote the good stuff. Therefore, we’re doubling down on human curation.
    We’re revamping the algorithmic part of our recommendation systems, as
     well, to give people more of what they want and less of what they don’t.
A streamlined and more beautiful user experience
It’s been a while since we took a serious look at Medium’s design, from how
 the site looks and the UI to the app and to the underlying code. We’re going
  to be doing some major remodeling the next few months. This includes
   upgrading parts of our technical infrastructure to make the site speedier
    (and, for the nerds: faster to develop on).
This shouldn’t concern you unless you don’t like things that are faster and
 work better. Or unless you’re a badass engineer or designer who’d like to
  help us with it.
Writing bigger checks
As our subscription base grows, so does our budget for content. We will
 continue to invest in the ways we do now: through the Partner Program, by
  commissioning stories, and via publisher partnerships. But in each case,
we are going to be looking to do bigger, better, and more ambitious stuff.
What’s a little further out…
As long as I’m painting the picture, I’ll mention two other goals on the
horizon. These aren’t nailed down, but we’re excited to get to them:
 Collaboration tools: From the early days of Medium, we’ve talked about thes
dea that people can create better things together than they can alone.
 And we’ve enabled that to some extent, but we want to do much more.
  Especially as the stories being published are the work of
  more than one person. The end-to-end editing process could
   be vastly improved.
 Audio: We see audio as a highly complementary format for sharing the
 types of stories Medium is great at. We started adding audio narrations
  to some of our best stories last year. This has remained a minor feature,
   but it is increasing in popularity, and there’s a lot of product and
   scontent work we’d like to do to make it better and grow what we have to
   offer.
It’s been a heck of a 12 months for Medium, full of growth and learning. I’m
 lucky I get to work with a team committed to doing things right and doing the
  right things. We’re very excited about the future.
If you’re a writer or publisher who’d like to partner with us, please be in
touch. If you’re an engineer, designer, or editor who’d like to work with us,
please also be in touch.
For members of our community, I’m sure this post has brought up some questions.
 Feel free to respond below, and we’ll try to answer anything that comes up.
"""

<filename>authors/apps/articles/tests/stories.py
small_story = 'this is a simple story'

medium_story = """
One year, I watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2003 Jim Carey version)
 every single day of December until Christmas. It’s my favorite Christmas
  movie of all time, and I get excited every time it’s on Freeform’s 25 Days
   of Christmas. I’m a Grinchophile if you will.

This year, as I embarked on my first Grinch watching experience of the seaso
n (homemade peppermint mocha in my favorite Christmas mug, plaid PJs,
and setting up my Christmas tree), I noticed a lot more than how cute Cindy Lou
Who is and how oddly relatable the Grinch is.

The Grinch might be the most culturally relevant Christmas movie of 2018.

I know, you’re probably thinking I’m crazy. “What about Love Actually?!”
“Um, Elf?” Of course, I love pretty much every Christmas movie
 (except A Christmas Story 2… not sure what that was). The Grinch, however,
  tackles so many issues that we’re dealing with today, and it’s pretty easy
  to miss it.

I know Dr. Suess had a deeper intention in creating The Grinch aside from
entertainment,but there is a lot more to the movie than one might think.
Now, all we need is a sequel because I really want to see more of the Grinch
and <NAME>’s love.
Issues of waste and the environment

There’s a very obvious theme of overbuying for Christmas in the film,
but the Grinch understands waste above all else. At the beginning of the film,
he notes that it’s “crazy what those Whos will throw away.”
After the Whobilation,
 the Grinch says that everything the Whos buy their friends and
 family for Christmas ends up in the landfill he lives in.
By the end of the movie, the Whos start to understand that they focused
too much on buying gifts for their family and friends rather than spending
time with them for Christmas. While this is a small portion of the film,
it definitely looks at how much waste we produce,
especially in terms of overbuying and focusing on gifts as the main aspect of
Christmas. Loneliness during the holidays
As much as he doesn’t want to admit it,
the Grinch is very lonely in his lair away from Whoville. He talks to himself,
comes down to Whoville to be around the people, and asks Max for his
“sedative” to get rid of “those pesky memories” the day before Christmas.
(Isn’t this supposed to be for children?!).
Not everyone has friends or family to celebrate with during the holiday season,
even though this is supposed to be the most magical time of the year.
People also might have traumatic or sad memories around this time.
This can lead to a lot of loneliness and sadness,
and people who don’t experience this might not always understand.
The Grinch really showcases this, and
it’s such a good reminder to be there for the people you love during this time.

 

Bullying

<NAME> is the #WOAT. The way he treats the Grinch both when they were
children, as well as in adulthood, is unacceptable, and the film shines a
light on what this can do for people who experience it. The Grinch was bullied
during Christmas, so he has a negative outlook on Christmas as a whole because
of it.
Not to mention, the mayor humiliates Cindy Lou Who after the Grinch takes the
presents.(What a jerk!). The film highlights how mean the Whos are to the
Grinch and how it’s affected him throughout his life.
I’d suggest discussing this aspect of the film with everyone you watch it with,
especially children!

 

Respecting people’s differences

Cindy Lou Who, on the other hand, is the #GOAT.
She takes a chance on the Grinch when everyone
else had ostracized him from their society.
She is there for him when no one else is.
She even invites him to the Whobilation and nominates him as the Holiday
Cheermeister! Cindy stops focusing on how the Grinch is different from
everyone else and starts focusing on how similar he is to the rest of the Whos.
She wants everyone to be together at Christmastime, including the Grinch.
Cindy is definitely onto something, and I think we could all be a little more
welcoming to others’ differences, particularly during the holidays.

 

Finding joy after hardship

The Whobilation wasn’t necessarily a positive experience for the Grinch, and
 then he goes on to, you know, steal Christmas and all. However,
 he comes around, his heart grows to its normal size, and he finds happiness
 in Christmastime. He sees how happy the Whos are, even without presents and
 trees and feasts, and he joins them in celebration.

Yeah, Grinch went off the deep end a little bit, but he comes around. If
you’re dealing with something, you, too, can come back from it.
"""

huge_story = """
In “The rationalization of publishing,” I argued that subscriptions for
publishing on a wide scale are inevitable — and that’s a good thing. Now I
 will describe Medium’s unique approach to this opportunity.
First, in case you’re not aware, Medium has a subscription offering called
 Medium Membership. We launched it just over a year ago. Here’s what growth
  has looked like since then:
After a strong start (when people were really just subscribing because they
 believed in and wanted to support Medium’s mission — ), and a mediocre middle
  (when we were figuring it out), we’re now seeing not only more subscribers,
   but higher-percentage gains every month this year (accelerating growth).
The factors driving this took us a while to figure out and then get into
motion, but they’re gratifyingly simple. In fact, there are just two major 🔑s:
Put great stories behind the metered paywall.
Help people find the great stories they care about.
In these ways, Medium is not unlike other digital media subscription
businesses like the Washington Post or The New Yorker — or even Spotify and
 Netflix. We sell content on a subscription basis. Like most paywalled sites,
  we give some stories away for free (currently, it’s three per month). But
   unlike most paywalled publications, we rely solely on subscriptions (no
    advertising), and we have a mix of original and non-original content.
     Medium is also an open platform, which makes it different than most
      premium subscription products — except for Spotify and other music
       services, which anyone can upload to and get paid (if they know what
        they’re doing).
Let me break down the various aspects of of the Medium model. Most of them are
 not, on their own, unique to Medium. But in combination, they create a
  powerful formula:
We offer a lot for a little.
As I wrote over here, I believe bundles are a large part of the future of
 content monetization. That doesn’t mean there won’t be lots of individuals
  subscriptions and patronage and other models that work — all of which help
   serve the cause. (It also doesn’t mean writers and publishers won’t be paid
    well.)
Medium is one of the largest bundles of original content of its type, so it’s
 a great value for readers. And it’s definitely the easiest way to get paid
  directly for writing, so we’re seeing rapid growth in people who may not
   have written on Medium before.
We welcome ideas and stories from everywhere.
I sometimes describe Medium as a system for moving ideas between brains.
 You could describe most of the internet that way, but at Medium we specialize
  in ideas that require a little space and thought — or, as we also like to
   say, smart thinking on things that matter. This has always been the point.
    And if that’s the point, why would you limit your source brains to those
     who work for you — or even those you know?
More than 50,000 writers publish on Medium every week: politicians, professors,
 storytellers, experts in your field, and people you’ve never heard of. The
  best of these stories contain knowledge and insight that can’t be found
   anywhere else. We take pride that we offer a level playing field for
    diverse voices from everywhere to be heard. By curating and organizing
     these stories, we have the equivalent of a publication with more talent
      than any other — and it’s growing all the time.
As it relates to the business model, a subset of the stories on Medium are
 behind our paywall and contribute to our Membership. Our Partner Program is
  designed for writers and publishers who wish to get paid for their work.
Our editorial team commissions original stories and uplevels organic ones.
We have no writers on staff and don’t plan to add any (except for marketing).
 However, we have a growing editorial team that is commissioning world-class
  writing by professional journalists and authors. The team is also partnering
   with some of the world’s most compelling writers on ambitious projects
    (like this one we just did with <NAME>).
We’ve also found that many great writers — especially, people who are experts
 in their field — are writing on Medium already. Since a little editorial
  guidance — a better headline, some nice art, a copy edit — can help stories reach even more people, we’re now working with folks to take their work from good to great and help it get the audience it deserves. This is a very efficient way to get more professional quality stories.
We partner with publishers on and off platform.
Our goal is to offer the best selection of insightful stories — not news — you
 can get anywhere. To do this, we go beyond what our editorial team and
  individuals on the platform create and partner with other publishers in two
   ways:
First, there are hundreds of small publishers on Medium that do original work.
 Some of them are in our Partner Program, which means they publish their
  stories behind our paywall and can get paid. We work with some of those
  s publishers on a contractual basis to do original projects (like this great
   series on California politics).
Second, we license content from major publishers that are not on Medium.
 By doing this, we give our readers a curated selection of excellent stories
  that they can read and interact with in our ad-free environment every day.
We use personalization to deliver the best for each reader.
Finally, a key element of our model — and a differentiator for us — is
 personalization. We serve a broad set of interests — and we serve many of
  those interests deeply. We collect data — both explicit data (which we get
   when readers follow specific topics and writers) and implicit data (which
    is informed by which stories you read) — in order to suggest stories that
     we think you will be interested in.
Unlike the vast majority of publishers, we never sell your data to third
 parties or leak your activity through ads.
Also unlike how most of the internet works, we do not only surface the very
 latest stuff. People come to Medium to get the smartest thinking on things
  they care about. If you care about, say, entrepreneurship or relationships,
   the best thing you could read today was very unlikely to have been
    published in the last 48 hours. But most of the internet treats anything
     that isn’t new like bad fruit. This is a huge detriment to readers and
      writers alike. It encourages people to spend their time on the novel in
       lieu of the worthwhile, and it discourages creators from investing in
        things of lasting value.
We solve this by suggesting stories based on their current relevance, not
 their publish date. Some topics require more freshness than others, but if
  you see older stories coming up in your feed, it’s because it’s stood the
   test of time.
A huge benefit of this is it allows Medium and our writers to make bigger
 investments in stories, because we amortize that investment over months
  instead of days. And it means we have a continually growing library of
   stories that subscribers gain access to (making their subscription a better
    deal every day). This is a big reason our subscriber growth is
     accelerating — and we’re just scratching the surface.
That’s how Medium works today. And, again, it’s working well. One thing I
 didn’t mention is that all aspects of Medium are growing — not just
  subscriptions. (We don’t use it as a core metric internally, but we often
   get asked about unique visitors for comparison sake. That’s at 80M for the
    last 30 days.) With these basic mechanics established, we can continue to
     grow and invest, which will allow us to do a better and better job
      serving both readers and writers.
That said, we have a lot of work to do. Here’s what’s on our short-term list:
Improving quality and relevance
Our most important job is to deliver great stories to readers. And we have
 great stories. We also have not-great stories. And we don’t always manage to
  help the best get seen. We’re obsessed with helping the best quality stuff
   get in front of people — as well as that each person really cares about.
    And we know we have a ways to go here.
One of the big learnings we’ve had from the last year is that you can measure
 and algorithmically optimize for engagement — as all ad-driven platforms do.
  But that’s not the same thing as user value, which is very hard to measure
   and algorithmically optimize for.
Another way to say this is we can use machines to figure out what stories will
 get the most reads, but we still need humans to know if they’re actually good
  (true, useful, well-written, not just disguised marketing…). We want to
   promote the good stuff. Therefore, we’re doubling down on human curation.
    We’re revamping the algorithmic part of our recommendation systems, as
     well, to give people more of what they want and less of what they don’t.
A streamlined and more beautiful user experience
It’s been a while since we took a serious look at Medium’s design, from how
 the site looks and the UI to the app and to the underlying code. We’re going
  to be doing some major remodeling the next few months. This includes
   upgrading parts of our technical infrastructure to make the site speedier
    (and, for the nerds: faster to develop on).
This shouldn’t concern you unless you don’t like things that are faster and
 work better. Or unless you’re a badass engineer or designer who’d like to
  help us with it.
Writing bigger checks
As our subscription base grows, so does our budget for content. We will
 continue to invest in the ways we do now: through the Partner Program, by
  commissioning stories, and via publisher partnerships. But in each case,
we are going to be looking to do bigger, better, and more ambitious stuff.
What’s a little further out…
As long as I’m painting the picture, I’ll mention two other goals on the
horizon. These aren’t nailed down, but we’re excited to get to them:
 Collaboration tools: From the early days of Medium, we’ve talked about thes
dea that people can create better things together than they can alone.
 And we’ve enabled that to some extent, but we want to do much more.
  Especially as the stories being published are the work of
  more than one person. The end-to-end editing process could
   be vastly improved.
 Audio: We see audio as a highly complementary format for sharing the
 types of stories Medium is great at. We started adding audio narrations
  to some of our best stories last year. This has remained a minor feature,
   but it is increasing in popularity, and there’s a lot of product and
   scontent work we’d like to do to make it better and grow what we have to
   offer.
It’s been a heck of a 12 months for Medium, full of growth and learning. I’m
 lucky I get to work with a team committed to doing things right and doing the
  right things. We’re very excited about the future.
If you’re a writer or publisher who’d like to partner with us, please be in
touch. If you’re an engineer, designer, or editor who’d like to work with us,
please also be in touch.
For members of our community, I’m sure this post has brought up some questions.
 Feel free to respond below, and we’ll try to answer anything that comes up.
"""

One year, I watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2003 Jim Carey version)  every single day of December until Christmas. It’s my favorite Christmas   movie of all time, and I get excited every time it’s on Freeform’s 25 Days    of Christmas. I’m a Grinchophile if you will.  This year, as I embarked on my first Grinch watching experience of the seaso n (homemade peppermint mocha in my favorite Christmas mug, plaid PJs, and setting up my Christmas tree), I noticed a lot more than how cute Cindy Lou Who is and how oddly relatable the Grinch is.  The Grinch might be the most culturally relevant Christmas movie of 2018.  I know, you’re probably thinking I’m crazy. “What about Love Actually?!” “Um, Elf?” Of course, I love pretty much every Christmas movie  (except A Christmas Story 2… not sure what that was). The Grinch, however,   tackles so many issues that we’re dealing with today, and it’s pretty easy   to miss it.  I know Dr. Suess had a deeper intention in creating The Grinch aside from entertainment,but there is a lot more to the movie than one might think. Now, all we need is a sequel because I really want to see more of the Grinch and <NAME>’s love. Issues of waste and the environment  There’s a very obvious theme of overbuying for Christmas in the film, but the Grinch understands waste above all else. At the beginning of the film, he notes that it’s “crazy what those Whos will throw away.” After the Whobilation,  the Grinch says that everything the Whos buy their friends and  family for Christmas ends up in the landfill he lives in. By the end of the movie, the Whos start to understand that they focused too much on buying gifts for their family and friends rather than spending time with them for Christmas. While this is a small portion of the film, it definitely looks at how much waste we produce, especially in terms of overbuying and focusing on gifts as the main aspect of Christmas. Loneliness during the holidays As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, the Grinch is very lonely in his lair away from Whoville. He talks to himself, comes down to Whoville to be around the people, and asks Max for his “sedative” to get rid of “those pesky memories” the day before Christmas. (Isn’t this supposed to be for children?!). Not everyone has friends or family to celebrate with during the holiday season, even though this is supposed to be the most magical time of the year. People also might have traumatic or sad memories around this time. This can lead to a lot of loneliness and sadness, and people who don’t experience this might not always understand. The Grinch really showcases this, and it’s such a good reminder to be there for the people you love during this time.     Bullying  <NAME> is the #WOAT. The way he treats the Grinch both when they were children, as well as in adulthood, is unacceptable, and the film shines a light on what this can do for people who experience it. The Grinch was bullied during Christmas, so he has a negative outlook on Christmas as a whole because of it. Not to mention, the mayor humiliates Cindy Lou Who after the Grinch takes the presents.(What a jerk!). The film highlights how mean the Whos are to the Grinch and how it’s affected him throughout his life. I’d suggest discussing this aspect of the film with everyone you watch it with, especially children!     Respecting people’s differences  Cindy Lou Who, on the other hand, is the #GOAT. She takes a chance on the Grinch when everyone else had ostracized him from their society. She is there for him when no one else is. She even invites him to the Whobilation and nominates him as the Holiday Cheermeister! Cindy stops focusing on how the Grinch is different from everyone else and starts focusing on how similar he is to the rest of the Whos. She wants everyone to be together at Christmastime, including the Grinch. Cindy is definitely onto something, and I think we could all be a little more welcoming to others’ differences, particularly during the holidays.     Finding joy after hardship  The Whobilation wasn’t necessarily a positive experience for the Grinch, and  then he goes on to, you know, steal Christmas and all. However,  he comes around, his heart grows to its normal size, and he finds happiness  in Christmastime. He sees how happy the Whos are, even without presents and  trees and feasts, and he joins them in celebration.  Yeah, Grinch went off the deep end a little bit, but he comes around. If you’re dealing with something, you, too, can come back from it. In “The rationalization of publishing,” I argued that subscriptions for publishing on a wide scale are inevitable — and that’s a good thing. Now I  will describe Medium’s unique approach to this opportunity. First, in case you’re not aware, Medium has a subscription offering called  Medium Membership. We launched it just over a year ago. Here’s what growth   has looked like since then: After a strong start (when people were really just subscribing because they  believed in and wanted to support Medium’s mission — ), and a mediocre middle   (when we were figuring it out), we’re now seeing not only more subscribers,    but higher-percentage gains every month this year (accelerating growth). The factors driving this took us a while to figure out and then get into motion, but they’re gratifyingly simple. In fact, there are just two major 🔑s: Put great stories behind the metered paywall. Help people find the great stories they care about. In these ways, Medium is not unlike other digital media subscription businesses like the Washington Post or The New Yorker — or even Spotify and  Netflix. We sell content on a subscription basis. Like most paywalled sites,   we give some stories away for free (currently, it’s three per month). But    unlike most paywalled publications, we rely solely on subscriptions (no     advertising), and we have a mix of original and non-original content.      Medium is also an open platform, which makes it different than most       premium subscription products — except for Spotify and other music        services, which anyone can upload to and get paid (if they know what         they’re doing). Let me break down the various aspects of of the Medium model. Most of them are  not, on their own, unique to Medium. But in combination, they create a   powerful formula: We offer a lot for a little. As I wrote over here, I believe bundles are a large part of the future of  content monetization. That doesn’t mean there won’t be lots of individuals   subscriptions and patronage and other models that work — all of which help    serve the cause. (It also doesn’t mean writers and publishers won’t be paid     well.) Medium is one of the largest bundles of original content of its type, so it’s  a great value for readers. And it’s definitely the easiest way to get paid   directly for writing, so we’re seeing rapid growth in people who may not    have written on Medium before. We welcome ideas and stories from everywhere. I sometimes describe Medium as a system for moving ideas between brains.  You could describe most of the internet that way, but at Medium we specialize   in ideas that require a little space and thought — or, as we also like to    say, smart thinking on things that matter. This has always been the point.     And if that’s the point, why would you limit your source brains to those      who work for you — or even those you know? More than 50,000 writers publish on Medium every week: politicians, professors,  storytellers, experts in your field, and people you’ve never heard of. The   best of these stories contain knowledge and insight that can’t be found    anywhere else. We take pride that we offer a level playing field for     diverse voices from everywhere to be heard. By curating and organizing      these stories, we have the equivalent of a publication with more talent       than any other — and it’s growing all the time. As it relates to the business model, a subset of the stories on Medium are  behind our paywall and contribute to our Membership. Our Partner Program is   designed for writers and publishers who wish to get paid for their work. Our editorial team commissions original stories and uplevels organic ones. We have no writers on staff and don’t plan to add any (except for marketing).  However, we have a growing editorial team that is commissioning world-class   writing by professional journalists and authors. The team is also partnering    with some of the world’s most compelling writers on ambitious projects     (like this one we just did with <NAME>). We’ve also found that many great writers — especially, people who are experts  in their field — are writing on Medium already. Since a little editorial   guidance — a better headline, some nice art, a copy edit — can help stories reach even more people, we’re now working with folks to take their work from good to great and help it get the audience it deserves. This is a very efficient way to get more professional quality stories. We partner with publishers on and off platform. Our goal is to offer the best selection of insightful stories — not news — you  can get anywhere. To do this, we go beyond what our editorial team and   individuals on the platform create and partner with other publishers in two    ways: First, there are hundreds of small publishers on Medium that do original work.  Some of them are in our Partner Program, which means they publish their   stories behind our paywall and can get paid. We work with some of those   s publishers on a contractual basis to do original projects (like this great    series on California politics). Second, we license content from major publishers that are not on Medium.  By doing this, we give our readers a curated selection of excellent stories   that they can read and interact with in our ad-free environment every day. We use personalization to deliver the best for each reader. Finally, a key element of our model — and a differentiator for us — is  personalization. We serve a broad set of interests — and we serve many of   those interests deeply. We collect data — both explicit data (which we get    when readers follow specific topics and writers) and implicit data (which     is informed by which stories you read) — in order to suggest stories that      we think you will be interested in. Unlike the vast majority of publishers, we never sell your data to third  parties or leak your activity through ads. Also unlike how most of the internet works, we do not only surface the very  latest stuff. People come to Medium to get the smartest thinking on things   they care about. If you care about, say, entrepreneurship or relationships,    the best thing you could read today was very unlikely to have been     published in the last 48 hours. But most of the internet treats anything      that isn’t new like bad fruit. This is a huge detriment to readers and       writers alike. It encourages people to spend their time on the novel in        lieu of the worthwhile, and it discourages creators from investing in         things of lasting value. We solve this by suggesting stories based on their current relevance, not  their publish date. Some topics require more freshness than others, but if   you see older stories coming up in your feed, it’s because it’s stood the    test of time. A huge benefit of this is it allows Medium and our writers to make bigger  investments in stories, because we amortize that investment over months   instead of days. And it means we have a continually growing library of    stories that subscribers gain access to (making their subscription a better     deal every day). This is a big reason our subscriber growth is      accelerating — and we’re just scratching the surface. That’s how Medium works today. And, again, it’s working well. One thing I  didn’t mention is that all aspects of Medium are growing — not just   subscriptions. (We don’t use it as a core metric internally, but we often    get asked about unique visitors for comparison sake. That’s at 80M for the     last 30 days.) With these basic mechanics established, we can continue to      grow and invest, which will allow us to do a better and better job       serving both readers and writers. That said, we have a lot of work to do. Here’s what’s on our short-term list: Improving quality and relevance Our most important job is to deliver great stories to readers. And we have  great stories. We also have not-great stories. And we don’t always manage to   help the best get seen. We’re obsessed with helping the best quality stuff    get in front of people — as well as that each person really cares about.     And we know we have a ways to go here. One of the big learnings we’ve had from the last year is that you can measure  and algorithmically optimize for engagement — as all ad-driven platforms do.   But that’s not the same thing as user value, which is very hard to measure    and algorithmically optimize for. Another way to say this is we can use machines to figure out what stories will  get the most reads, but we still need humans to know if they’re actually good   (true, useful, well-written, not just disguised marketing…). We want to    promote the good stuff. Therefore, we’re doubling down on human curation.     We’re revamping the algorithmic part of our recommendation systems, as      well, to give people more of what they want and less of what they don’t. A streamlined and more beautiful user experience It’s been a while since we took a serious look at Medium’s design, from how  the site looks and the UI to the app and to the underlying code. We’re going   to be doing some major remodeling the next few months. This includes    upgrading parts of our technical infrastructure to make the site speedier     (and, for the nerds: faster to develop on). This shouldn’t concern you unless you don’t like things that are faster and  work better. Or unless you’re a badass engineer or designer who’d like to   help us with it. Writing bigger checks As our subscription base grows, so does our budget for content. We will  continue to invest in the ways we do now: through the Partner Program, by   commissioning stories, and via publisher partnerships. But in each case, we are going to be looking to do bigger, better, and more ambitious stuff. What’s a little further out… As long as I’m painting the picture, I’ll mention two other goals on the horizon. These aren’t nailed down, but we’re excited to get to them:  Collaboration tools: From the early days of Medium, we’ve talked about thes dea that people can create better things together than they can alone.  And we’ve enabled that to some extent, but we want to do much more.   Especially as the stories being published are the work of   more than one person. The end-to-end editing process could    be vastly improved.  Audio: We see audio as a highly complementary format for sharing the  types of stories Medium is great at. We started adding audio narrations   to some of our best stories last year. This has remained a minor feature,    but it is increasing in popularity, and there’s a lot of product and    scontent work we’d like to do to make it better and grow what we have to    offer. It’s been a heck of a 12 months for Medium, full of growth and learning. I’m  lucky I get to work with a team committed to doing things right and doing the   right things. We’re very excited about the future. If you’re a writer or publisher who’d like to partner with us, please be in touch. If you’re an engineer, designer, or editor who’d like to work with us, please also be in touch. For members of our community, I’m sure this post has brought up some questions.  Feel free to respond below, and we’ll try to answer anything that comes up.