Advertisement

Medium snaps up Talkshow and its public chat app

The former startup will focus on the future of writing.

Talkshow's namesake chat-in-public app never really caught on, but that doesn't mean the team's story has ended just yet. Co-founder Michael Sippey has revealed that Medium has bought Talkshow Industries. It's a tiny outfit, but it's important enough that Sippey will become Medium's Head of Product and help the service "evolve" its paid writing model. Sippey isn't providing any specific clues as to what he'll do next. However, he has confirmed that both Talkshow and Episode (an unfinished podcast discovery app) are shutting down.

It's unclear exactly what Sippey and crew will do at Medium -- this is an unusual acquisition even by Silicon Valley standards. The work on Talkshow and Episode might help, but it's important to remember that Sippey is a former Twitter staffer like many people within Medium's ranks. The acquisition talk started after Sippey asked Twitter/Medium veteran Ev Williams for input on Episode, so it could easily have been an opportunity to hire more Twitter alumni and draw on their experience.