Why I Am Done Writing for Medium
The once-bold platform has replicated the gatekeeping function that most of us came here to escape
About three years ago, a marketing director from Substack reached out and asked me to ditch Medium in favor of its fresher pastures. She even offered me a budget to design a logo and arrange tech support.
I declined her thoughtful offer for two reasons: 1) I prefer Medium’s tech. 2) Medium articles are news-aggregated in searches while Substack’s are not (although this may be changing).
Today, however, I am through writing for Medium. I will leave up my 232 articles and gradually render them free, like this one. This is not due to a sweeter offer elsewhere. Rather, it is due to Medium’s piss-poor treatment of good, well-earning writers and their readers.
Let me turn back the clock. Launched in 2012, Medium was a terrific option for writers and readers who wished to escape the gatekeeping of mainline publications. The platform directly rewarded authors who possessed the literary chops and audience outreach to put eyes on their work.
For years, it was great.
Then, Medium decided to improve. It launched a ragtag network of platform-based “publications” whose editors had to select your story in order for it to see much daylight. I disliked the publications model. Editors were often inexperienced writers whose work had hardly appeared beyond Medium. Suddenly, good authors with wide-ranging bylines (my work has appeared everywhere from The New York Times to Politico) had to suck up to near-hobbyist writers / editors.
I reached out to a Medium editor for help. He highlighted a couple of my stories, but then stopped. He even refused to highlight what is now a widely reproduced, minor classic:
Still, I stuck it out. When Medium’s publications strategy fizzled, the site reverted to a process of “boosting” stories. Although I never knew the terms, standards, or people behind this process, I was well treated, earning good money ($5,156.79 last year according to my 1099) for boosted and reader-appreciated stories.
This, too, stopped. Just like that. I submitted excellent pieces that received crickets from “boosting” editors, like this one:
And this:
I discovered something. If a story isn’t “boosted,” it earns next-to-nothing. This is true even if it receives more readers and “likes” than a boosted story. The selection process is opaque and, it seems to me, vaguely nepotistic. Once more, Medium is replicating the gatekeeping structure that had once been so refreshingly absent.
Again, I wrote to the same editor for help. Why not boost a great piece, similar to previous successes? Silence. Weeks passed. Then months.
I continue to love Medium’s tech. But if I am going to write near-free, I am going to do it for people and platforms that respect and recognize authors and readers.
This, my friends, is a somber goodbye. Thank you for years of support. You’ll find my bylines and books elsewhere, including my latest on X, free:
