Communication with writers was a huge issue when I joined in late 2023. I recall many of their Top Writers leaving with the introduction of the 30-second read rule/claps/highlighting bullshit.
I capitalized Top Writer because they used to have actual Top Writer badges for each category (Memoir, Humor, etc) and they did away with those in favor of the Boost program.
Me and you have benefitted from Boosts, yes, but even that program is shrouded in secrecy. What the actual fuck does "Quality" mean?! They refused to explain it to anyone. The earnings haven't been cut in half, they've been totally smashed by 90% or more.
If they had a strong PR spokesperson, they could've retained SO much writing talent from years gone by, but it's the same old story of zero communication and random algorithmic/earnings changes.
Shrouded in secrecy is a great way to describe most of Medium. Writing for boost is the only way I’ve made good money there, and that feels more like gambling than writing. I like the thought of the boost, but the implementation needs work.
I also believe that the biggest problem is the lack of transparency, which has led to the loss of trust by the authors.
On the other hand, transparency has never been among Medium's priorities. As long as things were going well, not knowing things was not a big problem, indeed, it was an excellent topic for writing posts.
Now it has become an enormous problem.
I believe that Medium is doing exactly what other platforms have been doing for years: their own interests.
I feel the same. I'm angry with Medium but I'm staying. The reason for me - the relationships I've built over the past year. I do hope Medium gets their act together, but if it wasn't for their problems, I would never have ventured out on Substack. There's always a silver lining! 😁
I have also become disillusioned with Medium since the earnings crash in mid-Decemeber. My earnings have dropped 70% and, more recently, it appears my posts are being suppressed to limit views and reads. I will continue to post on the site, but not as frequently and without the enthusiasm I once had.
I didn't see it coming, which is on me--but the mess they have made is on them--I am just not sure what to do with it now--wait? write for pennies? exit??
Yes, they haven't reduced 'payments as a whole', but that's corporate doubletalk. I know I'm reiterating what you just said, but I'm going to anyway.
Let's say, for example if they paid $10k to writers in a month.
Telling everyone they have been 'paying out the same amount' is *technically true*. But with the influx of bot accounts, AI generated content, and engagement circles suddenly that $10k figure I made up is stretched to twice the amount of writers. This means now all writers are suddenly receiving way less for each view, clap, read, or interaction. This is perhaps an intentional stop-gap measure to prevent the abuse of interaction circles, AI generated content, and bot accounts like they claim, but everyone else is being caught up in it.
Their corporate messaging has begun to subtly change as well. I see more and more 'staff picked' articles that are not behind the paywall. In other words, from people who aren't a part of the medium partner program (making money off their work on Medium).
There have been also been some tone-deaf replies to concerns about the changes that questioned the reason writers began writing in the first place, as if it were some moral high-ground to put in hard work for little to no compensation for the sake of art itself. I don't see Tony CEO-ing for free for the love of the game. Ironic, when it's not clear where our subscription dollars are going to now.
The Medium dream that was sold to me was that I would be compensated for the views and claps and interactions just like everyone else and that value would be at a rate that was comparable to those before.
9 months ago, the partner program was opened to 77 new countries. For people many living in countries with weaker currencies, receiving USD or Euro goes a lot farther for them, even if it is just a small amount making it. 9 months is a long time for this, but it could be a pivot in Medium's strategy to focus on writers who are willing to write for less. Or it could be how long it took for it to take off in those countries and now they have way more writers to pay.
There's one hand I understand with more traffic that can mean more expense, and there are bad actors and bots taking advantage of the system, but growth was supposed to be good for everyone.
Instead, they no longer publish how many boosts happen per month, and many of the people who were in charge of nominations for boosting are no longer in charge of nominating articles, and anecdotally from nominators I know, less and less nominations are actually being accepted to being boosted.
They are going for the wide nickel and dime and sacrificing their core audience that have made medium their full time jobs[and the readers who came with them]. The people who were making a living off Medium alone are screwed if they are not big enough to leverage that audience and take it to a different platform.
If these struggling writers migrate here to Substack there's no guarantee that a paying audience will follow. On medium, readers pay $5 a month to get behind the pay wall to gain access to the entire site, every writer. On Substack, $5 a month can be a single writer's paid subscription fee. So if they wanted access to a writer's entire work it could be just as expensive, and they would only gain access to one writer's work. So they would have to choose their favorite writer if they didn't want to spend more money.
The big writers on medium are doing well here because enough people love them to come over, but if you're not among them, you're most likely going to be trying to use both platforms to survive as a struggling writer. Yes, you make a tiny fraction of what you made before, but as a direct result of that you need that money now more than ever.
(A win for medium, who can continue to hold on to your writing, your subscription, and your continued works while paying peanuts.)
So yes, the top person on Substack brings in $5 million a year. There is great potential here. But how many of the middle-of-the-pack medium's professional writers have just had their livelihoods disappear? Has their Medium writing career been outsourced? How beloved do you need to be to make sustainable money from subscriptions here?
For many, it will not be feasible to rebuild here, and that means they will no longer be able to pay the bills. We're going to lose those writers and the stories they bring to both platforms as they go look into finding another job.
In the end, the writers and the readers lose, and Medium loses too unless they can sustain themselves off of the influx of new writers and readers from other countries they opened up the pay wall for. Way to shoot yourself in the foot here, Medium, and everyone else in the process.
Perhaps I am being too pessimistic, and the earnings will stabilize. I have been told that fluctuations like this have happened several times to some degree but never to this extreme degree.
Maybe Medium will stand by its writers and earnings will return. Maybe it's true that all the money is going to writing about the tech and AI space. But either way, it's definitely showed a lot of people you can't put all your eggs in one basket. And that you probably can't trust Medium to do anything other than what it believes to be in its own best interest.
It's absolutely the lack of communication that has people upset. We just want to know something! I'm with you though. Medium has been very good to me, and I'm not going anywhere until they kick me out.
Do whatever it takes to write your first 20 articles. The learning that’ll happen along the way is invaluable. Also, my old newsletters contain every valuable thing I’ve learned the last year and can save you some headaches along the way.
Joshua, I agree with the "stick by them" approach. We are too eager to fire, condemn, ostracize, boycott, etc. each time someone messes up. In this case, they need to be called out where it's clear they could have made better decisions and especially when they continued bad practices and didn't take action. But if we choose to reduce medium.com posting for economic reasons, because we have to make money and they aren't providing us with that, that's not disloyal but a natural consequence of their poor leadership. The huge question that remains with me is Why? Why make such a radical change? What or who did they think it was going to serve? Was it Equity? Was it concern that there was a top tier and lower tiers and things were becoming stratified? Was it that certain publications got huge and they were concerned about the power and influence of the Chief Editors? I'm winging it here but I suspect that last question may be relevant. But like you, I'm not giving up on them completely. They were pioneers and much of what we see today would not have been here without medium.com's initial vision.
Well said Donn. What they’re experiencing right now is indeed the natural consequence of poor leadership. Medium needs to do better, and doing better isn’t hard.
Great article Joshua and I echo pretty much everything you say. My Medium account got caught up in a 'rogue algorithm' and I lost all my followers. To say I was devastated is an understatement. I've now got a new account and am rebuilding... albeit slowly and carefully.
However, like you, "when the chips are down, and Medium is struggling, I choose to believe in them" - ditto. I'm hanging in there. I'm an optimist and am hopeful things will improve for genuine writers. Thanks again for your article.
Thanks for this. I’m sorry to hear about your account. I’m not surprised accounts get caught up in the algorithm by mistake, but it’s infuriating that nobody at Medium can (or will) undo the mistake. I appreciate you taking the time to read my article.
I, like many others, have become frustrated with Medium. However, you made a good point; Medium had faith in me as a new writer and I must have faith in them to fix their problems.
I hope that they do. I have never made a lot of money there but my primary reason for writing is my ministry as a Christina writer. Making money is nice and gives me a gauge by which I can see how effectively I am reaching people. It is also a nice added income.
The boosts aren’t paying much either, but it’s still better than nothing. I do hope they come around as well. I’m not leaving either, but I’m also dipping my toes in over here to see what it is all about.
Communication with writers was a huge issue when I joined in late 2023. I recall many of their Top Writers leaving with the introduction of the 30-second read rule/claps/highlighting bullshit.
I capitalized Top Writer because they used to have actual Top Writer badges for each category (Memoir, Humor, etc) and they did away with those in favor of the Boost program.
Me and you have benefitted from Boosts, yes, but even that program is shrouded in secrecy. What the actual fuck does "Quality" mean?! They refused to explain it to anyone. The earnings haven't been cut in half, they've been totally smashed by 90% or more.
If they had a strong PR spokesperson, they could've retained SO much writing talent from years gone by, but it's the same old story of zero communication and random algorithmic/earnings changes.
Shrouded in secrecy is a great way to describe most of Medium. Writing for boost is the only way I’ve made good money there, and that feels more like gambling than writing. I like the thought of the boost, but the implementation needs work.
The lack of communication and not knowing anything is the worst part.
It really is. I can understand not being able to fix the problems quickly, but I can’t understand not being forthcoming about it.
Great article, Joshua.
I also believe that the biggest problem is the lack of transparency, which has led to the loss of trust by the authors.
On the other hand, transparency has never been among Medium's priorities. As long as things were going well, not knowing things was not a big problem, indeed, it was an excellent topic for writing posts.
Now it has become an enormous problem.
I believe that Medium is doing exactly what other platforms have been doing for years: their own interests.
I believe that the return is no longer planned.
Thanks Riccardo. Let's hope it changes, the current path seems unsustainable.
I feel the same. I'm angry with Medium but I'm staying. The reason for me - the relationships I've built over the past year. I do hope Medium gets their act together, but if it wasn't for their problems, I would never have ventured out on Substack. There's always a silver lining! 😁
I have also become disillusioned with Medium since the earnings crash in mid-Decemeber. My earnings have dropped 70% and, more recently, it appears my posts are being suppressed to limit views and reads. I will continue to post on the site, but not as frequently and without the enthusiasm I once had.
I’ve noticed the same thing with views, mine are down around 70 percent as well. The worst part is Mediums “everything is fine” stance.
I didn't see it coming, which is on me--but the mess they have made is on them--I am just not sure what to do with it now--wait? write for pennies? exit??
I’m going to keep writing simply because I enjoy the community on medium and I think they’ll find their way.
I hope you are right!
But they keep saying, they haven't reduced payments, just spread it wider. My earnings have gone down ten times since December.
It's the same outcome I guess. They can't seem to get a handle on the AI articles and bad actors gaming the system.
Yes, they haven't reduced 'payments as a whole', but that's corporate doubletalk. I know I'm reiterating what you just said, but I'm going to anyway.
Let's say, for example if they paid $10k to writers in a month.
Telling everyone they have been 'paying out the same amount' is *technically true*. But with the influx of bot accounts, AI generated content, and engagement circles suddenly that $10k figure I made up is stretched to twice the amount of writers. This means now all writers are suddenly receiving way less for each view, clap, read, or interaction. This is perhaps an intentional stop-gap measure to prevent the abuse of interaction circles, AI generated content, and bot accounts like they claim, but everyone else is being caught up in it.
Their corporate messaging has begun to subtly change as well. I see more and more 'staff picked' articles that are not behind the paywall. In other words, from people who aren't a part of the medium partner program (making money off their work on Medium).
There have been also been some tone-deaf replies to concerns about the changes that questioned the reason writers began writing in the first place, as if it were some moral high-ground to put in hard work for little to no compensation for the sake of art itself. I don't see Tony CEO-ing for free for the love of the game. Ironic, when it's not clear where our subscription dollars are going to now.
The Medium dream that was sold to me was that I would be compensated for the views and claps and interactions just like everyone else and that value would be at a rate that was comparable to those before.
9 months ago, the partner program was opened to 77 new countries. For people many living in countries with weaker currencies, receiving USD or Euro goes a lot farther for them, even if it is just a small amount making it. 9 months is a long time for this, but it could be a pivot in Medium's strategy to focus on writers who are willing to write for less. Or it could be how long it took for it to take off in those countries and now they have way more writers to pay.
There's one hand I understand with more traffic that can mean more expense, and there are bad actors and bots taking advantage of the system, but growth was supposed to be good for everyone.
Instead, they no longer publish how many boosts happen per month, and many of the people who were in charge of nominations for boosting are no longer in charge of nominating articles, and anecdotally from nominators I know, less and less nominations are actually being accepted to being boosted.
They are going for the wide nickel and dime and sacrificing their core audience that have made medium their full time jobs[and the readers who came with them]. The people who were making a living off Medium alone are screwed if they are not big enough to leverage that audience and take it to a different platform.
If these struggling writers migrate here to Substack there's no guarantee that a paying audience will follow. On medium, readers pay $5 a month to get behind the pay wall to gain access to the entire site, every writer. On Substack, $5 a month can be a single writer's paid subscription fee. So if they wanted access to a writer's entire work it could be just as expensive, and they would only gain access to one writer's work. So they would have to choose their favorite writer if they didn't want to spend more money.
The big writers on medium are doing well here because enough people love them to come over, but if you're not among them, you're most likely going to be trying to use both platforms to survive as a struggling writer. Yes, you make a tiny fraction of what you made before, but as a direct result of that you need that money now more than ever.
(A win for medium, who can continue to hold on to your writing, your subscription, and your continued works while paying peanuts.)
So yes, the top person on Substack brings in $5 million a year. There is great potential here. But how many of the middle-of-the-pack medium's professional writers have just had their livelihoods disappear? Has their Medium writing career been outsourced? How beloved do you need to be to make sustainable money from subscriptions here?
For many, it will not be feasible to rebuild here, and that means they will no longer be able to pay the bills. We're going to lose those writers and the stories they bring to both platforms as they go look into finding another job.
In the end, the writers and the readers lose, and Medium loses too unless they can sustain themselves off of the influx of new writers and readers from other countries they opened up the pay wall for. Way to shoot yourself in the foot here, Medium, and everyone else in the process.
Perhaps I am being too pessimistic, and the earnings will stabilize. I have been told that fluctuations like this have happened several times to some degree but never to this extreme degree.
Maybe Medium will stand by its writers and earnings will return. Maybe it's true that all the money is going to writing about the tech and AI space. But either way, it's definitely showed a lot of people you can't put all your eggs in one basket. And that you probably can't trust Medium to do anything other than what it believes to be in its own best interest.
It's absolutely the lack of communication that has people upset. We just want to know something! I'm with you though. Medium has been very good to me, and I'm not going anywhere until they kick me out.
Haha! I’m with you, they’ll have to kick me out. We don’t need them to get everything right, just let us know what’s going on!
I agree with you completely Joshua. I’d be tickled pink if medium sent out any communication that even loosely resembles your version!
We don’t ask for much, just some communication!
I am a new writer on Medium. What would you suggest to me?
Do whatever it takes to write your first 20 articles. The learning that’ll happen along the way is invaluable. Also, my old newsletters contain every valuable thing I’ve learned the last year and can save you some headaches along the way.
Thanks for the help 😀
Joshua, I agree with the "stick by them" approach. We are too eager to fire, condemn, ostracize, boycott, etc. each time someone messes up. In this case, they need to be called out where it's clear they could have made better decisions and especially when they continued bad practices and didn't take action. But if we choose to reduce medium.com posting for economic reasons, because we have to make money and they aren't providing us with that, that's not disloyal but a natural consequence of their poor leadership. The huge question that remains with me is Why? Why make such a radical change? What or who did they think it was going to serve? Was it Equity? Was it concern that there was a top tier and lower tiers and things were becoming stratified? Was it that certain publications got huge and they were concerned about the power and influence of the Chief Editors? I'm winging it here but I suspect that last question may be relevant. But like you, I'm not giving up on them completely. They were pioneers and much of what we see today would not have been here without medium.com's initial vision.
A spirit of transparency in the face of mistakes would be so much better for them and us. The bunker mentality always ends badly.
Well said Donn. What they’re experiencing right now is indeed the natural consequence of poor leadership. Medium needs to do better, and doing better isn’t hard.
Great article Joshua and I echo pretty much everything you say. My Medium account got caught up in a 'rogue algorithm' and I lost all my followers. To say I was devastated is an understatement. I've now got a new account and am rebuilding... albeit slowly and carefully.
However, like you, "when the chips are down, and Medium is struggling, I choose to believe in them" - ditto. I'm hanging in there. I'm an optimist and am hopeful things will improve for genuine writers. Thanks again for your article.
Thanks for this. I’m sorry to hear about your account. I’m not surprised accounts get caught up in the algorithm by mistake, but it’s infuriating that nobody at Medium can (or will) undo the mistake. I appreciate you taking the time to read my article.
Hey Josh, you've pretty much echoed my exact sentiments. I'm not going anywhere but Medium definitely has a responsibility to repair trust.
Let’s hope they do Roman, I think it’s their only way forward.
I, like many others, have become frustrated with Medium. However, you made a good point; Medium had faith in me as a new writer and I must have faith in them to fix their problems.
I also like the community at Medium. They created a special place, let’s hope they get it moving in the right direction.
I hope that they do. I have never made a lot of money there but my primary reason for writing is my ministry as a Christina writer. Making money is nice and gives me a gauge by which I can see how effectively I am reaching people. It is also a nice added income.
It is still a great way to reach a lot of people. Most articles don’t distribute well, but every once in a while one will take off.
The boosts aren’t paying much either, but it’s still better than nothing. I do hope they come around as well. I’m not leaving either, but I’m also dipping my toes in over here to see what it is all about.
I agree, the pay from the boost is all over the place. Good idea to write on two platforms.
Old, schmold:)