🔴LIVE: Is the Medium–Substack Flywheel Dead? 💀 Not If You Do This...

I just hopped off a spontaneous live session with Patrick Stewart from The Taoist Corner — one of the fastest-growing philosophy newsletters on Substack — and we had to talk about something big.

This morning, Patrick noticed that Medium no longer lets you fully export your email subscribers. 😳

I checked myself — and yep, you can still download your full list but the newest subscribers have asterisks for their names.

That means if they didn’t manually opt in, you can’t move them anywhere else. This is a major shift for writers who rely on Medium for growing their email lists.

Medium’s CEO Tony Stubblebine confirmed in the comments on Medium that there are now two types of readers:

A) People who opt in to email alerts only (you can email them through Medium but can’t export their email)

B) People who manually sign up (you can both email them and take them with you)

This is what he shared in his own words:

A) ask the reader to sign up for email alerts so that you can both email them your posts through Medium and port their email to another platform

B) ask the reader to give you their email so that you can only email them posts through Medium but not port your list

Writers like Bobby Powers would take B (as the B in BOOST^^) and have already chimed in — and the consensus is clear: this is a wake-up call.

Because we’re building on rented land which we don’t want!

You don’t own your audience unless you can reach them outside the social media platform you’re writing on.

Publishers don’t ask about your followers. They ask about your email list.

That’s why Patrick and I went live — to break this down, share what’s happening, and help you take control of your audience growth.

What does “automatically subscribed” mean on Medium?

Peter Voica

asked what “automatically subscribed" means when you click on the email adresses with asteriks.

We couldn’t find an explantion via Medium Help, so

Christina Piccoli

asked ChatGPT based on its knowledge:

That message on Medium means:

The person didn’t manually subscribe to your newsletter. Instead, they followed you on Medium, and Medium automatically signed them up to get your stories by email.

Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes:

• Medium has a feature where if someone follows a writer and has email notifications enabled in their settings, they will automatically receive that writer's new stories by email.

• Since the person didn’t enter their email address manually into your signup form (like on your Substack or Gumroad), Medium hides their email address for privacy.

• You still benefit because your stories go to their inbox — but you don’t get access to their actual email address for use outside of Medium.

TL;DR:

They’re on your “email list” within Medium, but you can’t export or see their email address because Medium is protecting it.

When someone follows you on Medium, they’re automatically subscribed to your stories by email — but unless they manually enter their email, you can’t export it.

So what can you do right now to take back control?

Here are a few quick action steps I shared:

✅ Add a link to your Substack or email list in your Medium bio
✅ Add it at the bottom of your stories too —

Dana DuBois

does this beautifully and is building a smart flywheel
✅ Start building a lead magnet — a valuable freebie (like a checklist, guide, or email course) in exchange for an email

The Great Creative Migration is happening!

Don’t have a lead magnet yet? Don’t worry — I’ll be hosting a special session soon on how to create one from scratch (even if you have no idea where to start). Subscribe for more!

If you’re writing on Medium — even with just a tiny list — this is important to know.

It’s about control, connection, and building the most valuable asset in your business (besides your personal brand) - your email list.

And if you’re feeling the shift away from noisy social media, you’re not alone.

Creators like Dan Koe, Jay Clouse, Justin Welsh and even Jack Butcher joined Substack a few days ago and are now quietly rebuilding on Substack — and we’re starting to see what might be the Great Creative Migration, as

Justin Welsh

talks about.

Let’s make sure you’re ready for it!

More soon (including that lead magnet session!) — and in the meantime, link up your newsletter everywhere you can on Medium and other socials including LinkedIn as we discussed with

Neera Mahajan

- also here in the comments to connect and engage (you can also share your Medium link!).

I also started a thread on Notes where you can join the discussion.

Walter Rhein

shared:

So let us know in the comments!

You’ve got this!

PS Want to start and grow your blog on Medium (and link it to Substack) Walter Rhein and I have a NEW Medium Course for you.

For the next 2 days it’s included in the paid annual subscriptions, starting Friday you will get it as a standalone course from us!

Join now to get the course while it’s included in the Online Writing Club membership.