Creating a Medium Publication is No Longer a “Free” Account Feature

You must be a paid Medium member to create a Medium publication

For years I have been encouraging Medium writers to create their own publications. Not only that, but I’ve even gone as far as suggesting that publications are valuable enough that it can be worthwhile to have multiple Medium accounts, as each account is capped at 7 publications.

I never wanted to create alarm, but I’ve always figured that Medium would eventually start requiring paid membership for certain features, and eventually, for all writers.

This second prediction is likely still months away (essentially that in order to write on Medium, you must pay), but the first prediction (that certain historically “free” features/tools would be limited to paid members only) appears to have come to fruition.

I would have never known this except that, in order to stay on top of all things Medium, I operate a dozen or so accounts, and 50+ publications.

Today, when I was trying to create a new publication using one of my multiple medium accounts, I received the following message:

This was not an ad that I could click around or bypass. I was a bit confused until I realized that the account I was trying to create the publication under was not a paid account.

Of the many Medium accounts that I have, about half are paid, as part of a long term study I’ve been running for 3+ years on Medium.

After a quick search of Medium’s help center and T&C, I noticed this small but important detail had been added:

“You must have a Medium account with an active membership subscription in order to create a Medium publication.” — Medium

So, it’s official — you can only create a publication if you are a paid member.

Obviously ,this is not the end of the world, nor will it affect many Medium writers reading this post.

Most active writers are already paid Medium members (so this would not apply to them, unless they wanted to create a new account). But this is a big change for writers with a free account.

I should note that my free Medium accounts all appear to have been grandfathered in, meaning that while I cannot create new publications, I can continue to add to/manage my existing Medium publication (s), without needing to upgrade to a paid membership. The limitation is creating new publications under free Medium accounts.

— Casey Botticello

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Casey Botticello is an internet entrepreneur and the founder of Blogging Guide, an online community of writers with an award-winning newsletter. He is also the creator of the popular Medium Writing Course and the Substack Newsletter Course.

Casey previously worked at several tech startups, a lobbying & strategic communications firm, and has created several businesses of his own. He is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania, where he received his B.A. in Urban Studies.

You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, follow his Medium publications, Digital Marketing Lab and Medium Blogging Guide, or reach out to him directly on his personal website.