Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have already shipped a ton of substantial updates for their news-focused app Artifact, which launched earlier this year but already looks very different from what debuted in January. On top of allowing users to follow writers on the platform, the latest update also provides a way for writers to claim their own profiles, upload a profile picture and fill out a bio, as well as gives them access to some basic stats about how their work is performing with the Artifact community.
I spoke to Systrom about the new features, and about Artifact’s decision to focus on serving writers as a top priority, rather than just readers or consumers. Systrom sees writers as key to the platform’s growth, and he also believes Artifact can serve them in a way that no other platform or publishing paradigm has done to date.
“From the writer side, it feels to me like there’s this trend of writers buildi...
