Medium Has Changed Again, What Does It Mean for You?

Does curation still exist and other pressing questions

Medium has done it again. A new announcement regarding a change to the curation and distribution system has just been dropped.

But first things first. Yes, there is still curation, and yes, your story will still be curated into topics. More on that later.

Here is the official Medium article on the updates to the curation and distribution system:

The changes to curation and distribution are all in sync with Medium’s new plan of a “relational Medium.” So, before we delve into curation changes, we should take a quick look at the latest from Ev Williams.

To sum it up, Medium is rolling out a new mobile app. The big difference is the algorithm will not be based on topics but on followings. What does this mean for you? If you have a large following on Medium, your stories will become more accessible to your readers. This is great for the top writers with thousands of followers.

On the other hand, if you have a modest following, it doesn’t appear you’re going to get much visibility. For example, in the old method, I follow the topic of “fitness,” therefore, I see stories about “fitness” in my feed. I might see a writer whose work I read regularly, but I can also discover new writers that write about “fitness.”

But now, what stories I see are driven by whom I follow, not the topics I follow.

I don’t have the updated app, so I can’t review it in action. But from a screenshot from Williams’s article, you can see that you will be presented with a row of authors from your followers. You can click on any one of them and be taken directly to their profile page, where you can read their latest articles.

Again, this is fantastic for the top writers. I’m sure they are thrilled as this means even more exposure for them. But if you’re a new writer without much of a following, I am concerned you will struggle to get your stories in front of readers.

The other casualty of this new method is the writer with multiple niches. I mainly write about health and fitness. But I also write about parenting and the environment. Occasionally I write a poem.

The beauty of Medium is that I’m allowed to express my creativity and write about anything that interests me. Medium’s algorithms made this all work. My fitness followers could see my fitness articles. My poetry followers, if they existed, could see my poetry. But now, how many of them will be turned away if they click my profile and get hit with a barrage of mediocre poems?

If you’re a new writer without much of a following, I am concerned you will struggle to get your stories in front of readers.

My other thoughts are how I consume media. When I read the New York Times or scroll through Google News, I’m not searching out my favorite columnists. I’m reading what headlines catch my eye in the topics I am interested in. Williams is moving away from this in an effort for authors to “develop deeper relationships” with their readers.

Sadly, the side effect of this is that it will be even more difficult to discover new voices on Medium.

What about curation?

I’ve seen much confusion from writers after the Official Medium Blog dropped the news of changes to curation. It’s a confusing article so let’s try to break it down.

Medium outlined three major changes. Let’s take a look:

1. Every post published on Medium is eligible for further distribution. Writers no longer need to submit their stories for curation review.

If this is confusing to you, it’s because it makes no sense. Since when did writers submit their stories for curation review? If you were in the Medium Partner Program, your story was automatically reviewed by curators.

Am I missing something? Help me out. Let me know in the comments.

Update 10/5/20: Ask and you shall receive. Several readers have commented that when we checked the little box to put our stories behind the paywall, we were also submitting them for curation review. Now ALL stories are under curation review. Stories behind the paywall, and stories that are not behind the paywall. This is a good change!

2. Only writers enrolled in the Medium Partner Program will have the option to place their stories behind the metered paywall. If they choose to do so, their stories are eligible to earn money. Medium will no longer put posts behind the paywall in exchange for distribution.

This one is straightforward. If you want to make money writing on Medium, you’re going to have to enroll in the Medium Partner Program and pay $5.00 per month. Before, writers could earn money on their stories without being subscribers. That’s no longer an option.

Update 10/6/20: Okay, maybe not as straightforward as I thought. Scratch the above. I had this completely wrong. You don’t have to be a paying member of Medium to be behind the paywall. The change here is that stories are eligible for curation whether they are behind the paywall or not. Thanks to Sarah Woodams for the correction.

3. We have simplified the notifications and labelling of your story’s distribution status. This involves removing the topics listed on your stats page (for new and previous stories), in favor of a more general message.

This is the big one. This is the one that has caused all sorts of confusion. I’ve seen many writers question if Medium is still curating stories and if so, are they no longer curated into topics.

Yes, curation still exists. And yes, your stories are still curated into topics.

It’s just harder to see. Also, the “hanging tight” message is gone. And so is the message that your story was not distributed.

Steps for finding your curated story’s topics

Look in the stats of your story. If you see “Chosen for future distribution,” then you know your story is curated, and you can still see which topics. It’s just a bit harder to get to.

In the stats for your story, you will see there is either no message or the message “chosen for further distribution.”

If you want to see what topics your article is curated in, you need to view your story.

To do this, click the three little dots in the top right-hand section and choose “story settings.” See the screenshot below:

Scroll down, and you will see the following:

As you can see, this article has been distributed under “Food.”

Update: 10/12/20: This is gone now for all of my articles. Under Reader Interests, it only shows the five Tags that I used for my article. The Topics section is gone. I had a new article chosen for distribution today and it does not show any Topics.

Is this true for everyone? Does anyone still see the topics their article was distributed into?

I hope we will still get email notifications if our story is curated and into which topics. I haven’t had a curated story yet under the new method to try it out. If you have, please let me know in the comments if you received an email.

More on curation

“While we will continue to use topics behind the scenes to improve our recommendations to readers, we will no longer show topic designations to writers. That’s because topics are just one avenue, of many on Medium, for readers to connect with your writing.”

This is another confusing item for me. As we have just seen, they are still showing writers their topic designations. It’s in a roundabout sort of way, but it’s there.

So what do they mean here? How are they no longer showing topic designations to writers when you can still see what topics your stories have been distributed in?

Do you have the answer to this? Help me out in the comments if you do.

Final Thoughts

Yes, curation still exists. And yes, your stories are still curated into topics.

I began writing on Medium last November right after the change occurred where writers were paid by reads rather than by claps. Some people found their earnings soared, while others experienced drops in pay. I imagine this will be the same for this new change. Some writers will benefit, and others will not.

As a newish Medium writer with a modest following that writes in multiples niches, I am concerned these updates don’t have someone like me in mind. Already, I have noticed a rather large drop in views of my stories. And recently, I have noticed getting curated does not provide the big jump in views as it used to.

Publications will make a difference

It seems evident that publications are going to be more critical than ever for new writers to get eyes on their work.

But publications bring up an entirely new issue which you can read about here.

As Caroline de Braganza discusses in this article, authors' names are no longer visible when the story is published in a publication. Only the publication and title. Which seems to go exactly against the goal of “deeper relationships.”

I instantly fell in love with Medium when I began posting stories. I had a couple of viral hits early on to keep my motivation up. I love the easy interface for writing articles, the community of writers, and the freedom for creativity and experimentation with my writing.

I loved that I had a built-in audience even though I had never blogged before and had not much of a social media following. Medium was amazing for new writers. If it will continue to be so, remains to be seen.

I’m not jumping ship today. Yet, I doubt I’ll write into a great big void much longer. But still, I love Medium, so I’ll try to be patient and give these changes a chance.

Medium is a business, and they get to run it however they want. If this is the direction they want to go in, it’s up to them. And it’s up to us if we decide to come along for the ride.

What do you think of these updates? Have you seen any changes in your views or earnings? Let me know in the comments.

(That is, of course, assuming anyone will see this article.)