My Honest Thoughts On The Medium Updates (October 2020)

Ev Williams hit the nail on the head in August.

“It is much more common today to choose to read something before you even know where it came from, based on the headline.”

That was in his August article, “Towards a more relational Medium.”

Think of a time you scrolled through Facebook and clicked on a random headline. It pulled you in like a tractor beam, didn’t it? You may not have cared where it came from — you just clicked because the headline was juicier than a perfectly cooked steak (medium-rare).

Ev argues the internet is more transactional.

We search for answers on Google, click a headline in the top 10 results, then take the answers found there as gospel.

We trust Google’s algorithm to give us quality. We’ve likely never heard of the website we end up clicking into, right?

That’s transactional. It’s a one-and-done. You got what you needed, but it’s time to say good-bye now.

There are also examples of relational media. Think of your favorite media outlet or newspaper. You read articles in that newspaper because they’re FROM that particular source, right?

If I’m a huge fan of The New York Times, I’m going to read articles published inside simply because it’s The New York Times.

I have respect for the name. I trust them because of it. And Ev made it clear one month ago that he wants Medium to foster a more relational approach instead of a transactional approach.

It’s Hard To Find An Issue With Ev’s Idea

On almost every level, Ev’s idea hits the nail on the head. We should give more weight to the source of something, right?

Reading articles online shouldn’t always be like a one night stand. Maybe we should develop a relationship with those we read and the publications we follow.

So when Medium rolled out their recent changes to the homepage, publications, Medium app, and even to curation — we know these changes are meant to foster a more relational experience on Medium.

Is that such a bad idea?

To me, not at all.

It’s important to know the baseline idea Medium is shooting for before we dissect whether their technical changes make sense.

1. The New Medium Homepage — Is It Good?

Here’s a screenshot of my homepage as of right now.

What jumps out at you?

Well, typically articles have authors, right? Underneath the article headlines we see on the homepage, there are no author names anymore.

OCTOBER 6 EDIT: There are now author’s names on the homepage alongside article headlines. An update was given today. :)

However, if you direct your eyeballs to the right side of the above picture, you’ll see 8 of my favorite writers there.

See the numbers above their heads in black? That’s showing how many new articles they’ve published lately.

So, great? We have a perfect marriage here of publications we love as well as the authors we follow?

Honestly, no. For me it’s not quite there yet.

I respect Medium’s progress here. It’s much better than I could’ve ever come up with as a designer or programmer, okay? Let’s get that out of the way.

However, a lot of people love to read their favorite writers.

Ev’s own article published in late August seems to contradict itself a little bit (or maybe I’m incapable of understanding what he meant ).

Take this example:

“One of the things I loved about blogging back then — and that people enjoy about writing newsletters today — is the feeling that you’re publishing to a relatively consistent group of people who care what you have to say.”

That’s a great sentence. Pay attention to the last seven words, “who care about what YOU have to say.”

Yes Ev! I totally agree with you there. However, you also said this earlier in the article..

“You built affinity and trust for the sources (publications) you liked best, which lead to repeat reading and/or subscription. In other words, you had a relationship of sorts with them — and, perhaps, with many of the writers in them, as well.”

In my opinion, Ev and Medium are focusing too much on publications with this new update. Let’s pay particular attention to his last phrase, “and, perhaps, with many of the writers in them, as well.”

You can’t see me here but when I read that last phrase I practically got up from my table and screamed at my laptop “YES! THAT’S RIGHT!”

I believe that, especially on Medium, people have a stronger relationship with writers than even Ev might think.

I think that right now, 80% of the emphasis is on publications and 20% is on authors. I think it needs to resemble more of a 50/50 split — and this is coming from a guy who owns a publication with nearly 40,000 followers!

Let me be clear. I think that it’s a GOOD STEP! I just think that it’s more of a diagonal step instead of one that’s straight-forward into a better future.

Yes, as consumers we read things online because of the source. However, many times that source IS an individual. Many times we as readers are looking for a particular author. For me, I’ll choose Jessica Wildfire over any publication.

For me, Jessica Wildfire needs to be there on the homepage WITH A HEADLINE AND COVER PHOTO instead of JUST a headshot.

Headshots don’t do that much for me.

Don’t list the publication she published in. No need. Jessica is the publication for me.

My only advice here, Medium, is to give us our favorite authors alongside their most recent stories, too. Figure out a way to work that in. Right now all we see is their profile picture. Is there any way to work their recent headline in somehow?

Publications get to peg their name underneath the headlines, which fulfills your vision of a more relational Medium — but endeavor to do more for the writers in the future, maybe.

Right now a lot of writers are resorting to self-publishing their work so their followers can see ONLY their name on the homepage instead of the publication they published in.

I will click an interesting headline 9 times out of 10 not because of the publication name, but because of the author name. Medium needs to find ways to incorporate author names ALONGSIDE headlines more into their new — AND IMPROVED — homepage.

Great job Medium with the homepage. In my view, you only need to tweak a few things and it’ll be much better.

2. There’s Now A De-Emphasis On Curation

Another step towards a more relational Medium seems to be a de-emphasis on curation and the following of topics.

You can’t have a relationship with the “Travel” tag. Well, I guess you could. However it’s better to have a relationship with an author or publication, and Medium knows that.

Over the weekend, Medium decided to sort of de-emphasize curation.

They removed the “curated in ______ ” from our stats pages.

They opt for this message instead..

We used to see topics there, like ‘Curated in Travel, Self, etc.’ but we will no longer see that, apparently.

Here’s what Medium had to say about it.

“We still value editorial curation but recognize that our system did not always serve writers as well as it could. Our goal with a more relational Medium is to make it easier for writers to build and connect with their readership. We don’t want curation to be a hindrance to that. We will discover and promote stories, and are investing in improving our mechanisms for doing so. 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.

So, there’s less emphasis on curation now?

Pay attention to this phrase “Our goal with a more relational Medium is to make it easier for writers to build and connect with their readership. We don’t want curation to be a hindrance to that.”

To me, that means curation won’t be the end all and be all of getting seen on Medium anymore.

To me, this means that writers will get in front of their followers more, regardless of whether or not they got curated.

I could be wrong, but that’s how I took it.

If that’s the case, then *cue happy dance*

I think that’s a great move from Medium.

Concluding Thoughts

Medium, in their more recent communications to us, have said that they have more work to do.

Let’s allow them to do that work without freaking out.

We need to zoom way out and understand the relational approach to content on Medium is a good one. It will be better for writers over time.

As I’ve highlighted in this article, I think a few simple changes can be made to make this idea a better reality than it is right now.

If I know anything about Medium, it’s that they’re listening to us, and they want to give us a better experience that’s not only beneficial for us, but for the internet as a whole.

Thanks for reading.

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