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Has Medium Changed the Algorithm?

I’ve noticed some of my old stories suddenly getting new views…

So here’s the thing. Medium used to have a feature known as “distribution,” sometimes called “curation.” Some stories are favoured by the algorithm and get recommended to readers while others languish in obscurity.

Recently, there have been some changes to this process, and it has led to some weird results.

Before, when your story was chosen for distribution across Medium’s network of “Daily Digest” emails, topics, and “for you” pages, a notification would appear on that story’s stats page (see screenshot below). This could happen if your story was chosen either by a curator or by an automated selection process.

If a curator (a real human being) chose the story to be “featured,” it would be distributed plus featured on Medium’s social media. It was possible to be distributed but not featured, featured long after distribution (selected by a curator after already having been distributed by A.I.), or, in rare cases, featured without ever having been chosen for distribution (for example, stories that weren’t eligible to be distributed).

Since an update in September, stories have no longer been getting the “chosen for distribution” notification on their stats page. That doesn’t mean they aren’t being distributed, only that Medium has become slightly less transparent about which stories are being distributed.

Their reasoning is that eligible stories are being ‘curated’ automatically via A.I. rather than being reviewed and selected by the Medium team, meaning that more stories than ever are ‘distributed’. Stories published before September still have their notification, but new stories won’t get it.

One of the stranger outcomes of this new system seems to be that older stories that were completely overlooked by the algorithm might see a surge in new internal views, regardless of whether they were previously distributed.

For example, my short story “The Fitting Room” has made over $20 since the update. Prior to September, it had made less than $5 in nearly a year.

“The Fitting Room” is a fiction story, which tends not to do too well on Medium; Medium generally favours nonfiction. I didn’t expect it to ever earn more than a few pennies a month after its initial surge, which only amounted to about $3. But here I am a year later, watching it earn upwards of $1 per day.

I have done nothing to promote this story. It is getting internal views, which means it is being read by Medium users from somewhere on the site, not being found by random Google searches or linked elsewhere.

Medium stories don’t often get this kind of Renaissance. Usually, they have a spike in views right when they’re published and then steadily decrease until they only get a view once in a blue moon. Some stories have higher visibility for longer or a huge spike, if they go “viral.” Others have a small number of consistent views, which is the ideal “evergreen” situation. But those are rare.

Now, this isn’t a bad story. In fact, it won Story of the Month over on Simily, where it earned $6.60. (Simily only pays out when you hit $10; I’ve been paid $11 total for my stories there, and have $6.22 banked. If I reach $10 again, I’ll get another payout.) But I wasn’t expecting it to have a comeback!

Medium’s new algorithm changes, like all their internal updates, are baffling for those of us along for the ride.

I keep asking: Why this story? Why now?

The update seems to have something to do with it, since the views are all internal. But I’ve put on my detective hat, and these are my best theories:

• Is Medium trying to push more fiction over nonfiction?
• Are they trying to highlight older stories?
• Do they want to encourage readers to stay on Medium when stories are cross-posted to competing platforms like Simily?

What do you think?

Have you had any older stories suddenly see a surge in internal views since September?

Let me know in the comments!

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Never miss a story by subscribing to my Medium via email. Looking for more like this? Check out my personal nonfiction, nonfiction journalism and longform fiction. I do not monetize poetry or flash fiction. My novels are temporarily out of print; find out why in my article, “The Dreamspinner Press Controversy.” You can also find me on Twitter or like my public Facebook page.