Medium Has Survived, but at What Cost?

They are absolutely lying to you

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Every day I see another article on Medium’s front page about why Substack doesn’t cut it. Why you should stop using Substack immediately. Why Substack was actually behind 9/11.

Is this what it takes to get an article boosted around here? Slagging off the competition?

Forgive me, Medium Gods, but I thought good writing was the criteria?!

I recently read an illuminating article by Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine in which he confessed — without explicitly confessing — that Medium no longer pays its writers. Well, it does technically pay, but those pre-Stubblebine days of earning a thousand a month are gone and they ain’t coming back. Ever.

Between all the anti-Substack propaganda, you’ll find many writers who have lost all their Medium income, apart from a token $10–20 a month.

I’m one of them. And I wish Medium would just be honest about it. It doesn’t take a genius to understand what they’ve done, but they’re relying on writers not talking to each other. Cut all the payouts and hope no one makes too much fuss.

Look. Medium nearly went bankrupt. Anyone with any sense knew that’s what was happening before Stubblebine’s article even came out.