MEDIUM

Medium Makes Changes to Their Platform, Illuminating Individual Writer’s Expression

The integration of these changes should strengthen the reader’s connection to individual writers, but leaves many writers with questions.

Karene Tropen in 3 Min Read, the Official Medium Blog, describes the new Medium writing-meets-reader interface as a “more relational Medium.” Medium has developed a more expressive, writer-centric reading experience the pulls each reader a bit further into the branding, the voice, and the creative expression of each writer via a series of new design features, a new homepage structure, and by customizable blogrolls and publications. A scrolling feature now transforms the personal pages of individual writers into a smoother browsing experience for readers that will likely lead to a few perks for us writers.

While the new ellipses logo seems to be hitting a strong negative response from Medium writers, other changes have garnered a largely mixed response. While navigating this updated brand identity for the platform, one could conclude that Medium has essentially given more space for individual branding to be expressed. The end result should be a greater understanding by the reader upon visiting a writer’s page of who that writer is and what kind of reading content they offer.

Taking a backseat now is two of Medium’s most recognizable features:

• Curation
• Top Writer status

By removing the Medium “input” as to story quality, the judgment is ultimately placed into the capable hands of the reader, measured by scrolling time on a writer’s page and the clickability of their stories. Some are concerned about how this reading time vs scrolling time will affect their Medium Partner Program’s earnings. Likely, if you take some time to visit the pages of several writers you may find that you actually spend more time scrolling through their feed, reading a bit of stories here and there and selecting what most interests you. A killer introduction is now not just suggestive, but a must.

For poets, many poems appear in full right on the profile page. It saves the reader clicking and loading time and encourages the reader to read, browse, and read some more if they are impressed or inspired by the poetry they read. This deeper experience for the reader should build a stronger connection between reader and poet, but how the new browsing methods will affect MPP earnings for those who primarily write poetry is yet to be fully understood. Snippets of Medium staff feedback from email inquiries on the matter are circulating Facebook comment threads but is doing little to settle the minds of poets and short content writers on Medium.

Personally, the new reader experience is rather pleasant. The ability to mold my profile page into a scrolling poetic showcase of my work will earn me more fans, not less. In my opinion, readers can see more of my creative spirit and in such a way that is smoother; less clicking and loading to distract from the heart of the matter, my poems and my articles.

For longer articles, readers have a chance to explore the first few paragraphs of an article and decide whether or not to click to “read more” which will open the article fully. Readers can select the materials they are most interested in reading, which should lead to longer reading times as readers are more likely to finish reading something that has captured their attention enough to click and load the full story.

What Medium has failed to do is explain their purpose in a way that translates: “here’s what is in it for you writers.” Many writers begin their journey on Medium as a way to make some money with their work while building a loyal readership. While one of these is a bit in the air currently, the latter is certainly improved, from the reader’s perspective. Take some time to browse the pages of a few writers that have updated the design features of their page and you will see this:

• You immediately get a better “feel” for the writer
• You read a few things here and there as you scroll and something catches your eye to finish reading. This level of interest reached likely leads to more engagement.
• The experience feels less “hunt and click” and more creativity and talent-based. It feels more fluid.
• The stories flow seamlessly as you scroll down the page, looking less like a filmstrip reel of squares and more like an invitation for intimate reading time.
• Medium takes the background — while the writer’s branding and talent are amplified.

The homepage got a makeover as well with new font, a new layout, and a markedly different distribution manner. Personally, my recommended stories are much more targeted to my reading interests. I find the “trending” stories very helpful as well so I can see what is getting good traction amongst new Medium articles.

As a person of great adaptability and seeker of silver-linings, it didn’t take me long to embrace the new layout and features, though it does concern me not to see the top Writer tags displayed at the top of my profile. These labels I embraced, but they are, in fact, labels. Perhaps the reader would be more inclined to search my work if they aren’t immediately judging the body of my work by the categories at the top of my page.

The whole feel of the “new” branding is reminiscent of the old MySpace that from 2005–2009 was the social media obsession we all knew and loved. It was the personalization of MySpace that encouraged people to express themselves, be themselves, and entertain others while doing so. In my opinion, Medium had been a bit lackluster in this regard with such a simple design. Giving writers the ability to personalize and build their own brands here supports the reason why many come here in the first place; to build their reading fanbase.

Side note: Here’s hoping the newsletter feature will follow suit with a few upgrades as the current version is so scaled down it falls flat in comparison to other newsletter options such as the notoriously user-unfriendly Mailchimp and the super-simple minimalistic Substack.

On the whole, the new changes will move the Medium reader and writer relationship into perhaps something more sustainable or at least memorable. As a long-haul Medium writer, I intend to stick around and find out.

While you are here, visit my profile page and give it a scroll. See if you feel the same way — that the scrolling/reading experience helps you to get to know me better as a writer and poet. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Christina M. Ward, 2020 poet, essayist, freelance professional