Imo, Medium didn't reach 1M members because of its Boost Program. It's not as if after August 2023 Medium writers had an epiphany and started producing top-quality content that made readers flock to the platform — if anything, many great writers left (or started using Medium to promote other things), and AI content flourished.
Imo, Medium didn't reach 1M members because of its Boost Program. It's not as if after August 2023 Medium writers had an epiphany and started producing top-quality content that made readers flock to the platform — if anything, many great writers left (or started using Medium to promote other things), and AI content flourished.
In truth, Medium reached 1M members because in July 2023 (one month before), its paywalled stories became...truly paywalled. In July 2023, Medium made a silent change to the metering system — before this change, readers could read any story with a few tricks (clearing cookies, incognito windows, etc.). After July 2023, the party was over — the only way to read a paywalled story is to become a paying member. So naturally, people had no choice but to pay.
So far, so good, and in my opinion, this was a brilliant move by Medium. The real question is, what would have happened if the MPP formula didn't change — which slashed the earnings of most writers? For example, every great tech writer I know moved to another platform.
P.S.: The fact that entering MPP was also hinged on becoming a paying member also played a smaller role, albeit not so significant.
Imo, Medium didn't reach 1M members because of its Boost Program. It's not as if after August 2023 Medium writers had an epiphany and started producing top-quality content that made readers flock to the platform — if anything, many great writers left (or started using Medium to promote other things), and AI content flourished.
In truth, Medium reached 1M members because in July 2023 (one month before), its paywalled stories became...truly paywalled. In July 2023, Medium made a silent change to the metering system — before this change, readers could read any story with a few tricks (clearing cookies, incognito windows, etc.). After July 2023, the party was over — the only way to read a paywalled story is to become a paying member. So naturally, people had no choice but to pay.
So far, so good, and in my opinion, this was a brilliant move by Medium. The real question is, what would have happened if the MPP formula didn't change — which slashed the earnings of most writers? For example, every great tech writer I know moved to another platform.
P.S.: The fact that entering MPP was also hinged on becoming a paying member also played a smaller role, albeit not so significant.
Hello Nikos, so nice reading from you again. Hope all is well. What are you doing? LinkedIn and Substack?
You're right about the paywall! Now it's harder to read a member-only post.
Short form stories aren't paywalled anymore, you can read the whole piece now. That's another change,.
I loved the 3 free posts idea and also that you could share "friend links" via social.
Now if I share something via X often people are annoyed. They want to have the friend link.
I also think it was smart to offer all the good content and tutorials behind a paywall.
My husband used to read all of those coding tutorials via the 3 free posts or sharing it via socials. Now he became a member.