Publication Editors Should Be Able to Make a Living From Their Work

Does Medium have anything serious in store for us?

In the complete guide to poetry on Medium that I was lucky enough to publish thanks to a wonderful collaboration with Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, I introduce myself as an old hand at the platform.

For those who don’t know yet, I’ve been writing and publishing writers on Medium for ten years now, which means I’ve seen Ev Williams’ baby born and raised and consider myself an old pipe smoker who’s been around.

Don’t see any pretension in this. I don’t consider myself in any way a reference or a wise old man to whom each of you should turn for answers to your questions. It’s just that during these ten years I’ve had the opportunity to read and see hundreds and hundreds of writers grow (and also disappear), I’ve seen dozens and dozens of publications being born and thriving (and also dying), I’ve observed the work of many passionate editors like me. In summary, I have gained experience not only as a reader and writer, but also as an editor through the publication Scribe, which will soon celebrate its sixth anniversary!

Let’s just say that I’m an old sea dog who has weathered the storms with the same energy and passion. If I take a quick look in my rear-view mirror as a writer and editor who deeply loves what he does, I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that I’ve never disappeared from the radar. In six years I’ve never missed the weekly appointment I’ve set with all the readers and writers of my publication. Since the first day I decided to shine a light on writers I find brilliant, I’ve never lost my motivation and desire to help others grow in their writing. Passion when you hold us!

Now you’re probably thinking: “Who does he think he is, throwing flowers at himself this way? Does he have anything to prove or any excuses to make? Not at all, and I hope what I’m telling you so far doesn’t give you that impression, because that’s not the message I want to get across or the purpose of this story. The purpose of this story, I’m coming to it.

There are other editors on Medium who are as passionate as I am and who take what they do seriously. So maybe what follows will challenge them, at least that’s all I hope. Because what I wanted to talk about today is how Medium perceives the value that we editors bring to the platform.

Of course, if we oversimplify things, we are just content curators. We bring together stories written by others into one place, our publication, which we have designed to be to our liking and to appeal to our community of writers and readers.

If we’ve done our job right, we’ve defined a clear and precise editorial line so that each writer knows what he or she is getting into and each reader can read stories that fit. This editorial line is generally set out in guidelines that we have written with great care and that we update on a regular basis so that they evolve over time and according to the evolution of Medium.

We search for, read, edit, and publish stories that resonate with us. We take a lot of time to welcome writers by first exchanging with them by email. We try to understand why they like to write and why they want to publish their stories in our publication. We try to know a little bit of their personal story because behind each writer there is a human being with a heart and emotions.

Once the first stories are published, we accompany their births, we do everything possible so that readers can discover them and be amazed in their turn. We seek to shed light on their writers through our weekly newsletters, which also represent a considerable amount of work when they are thought out, designed and published to be of service to others.

Day after day, we think of new ideas to animate our community of writers and encourage them to write. We imagine writing prompts, we create books so that their words travel outside of Medium and fall into the hands of readers who are far from the crazy world of the Internet. We’re constantly racking our brains to help our publication grow and get more and more readers. More than that, we are always looking to publish quality stories that make sense.

We repeat this pattern over and over, because we passionately love what we do, because we passionately love words and stories that matter, because we passionately love humans, because we think words can help us live better…

I’m sure many editors will recognize themselves in this way of dressing up as an editor here on Medium. There’s probably a lot more to say on the topic, but I tried to express as best I could how I chose to make this journey into the publishing world on the platform.

So now, what does Medium think of all this work we’ve been doing tirelessly for so many years? What level of esteem do Medium’s big cats have for our work as editors? Is it really worth its weight in gold?

According to Tony’s paper on the future of Medium published on December 5, 2022, the work of editors seems to be taken so seriously that they will soon be paid for the value they bring to the platform.

Here are Tony’s words: “We want to elevate publications, and not just the big ones, as important curators. The editors of the publications here know so much better than us what is an important read and why. Hopefully we can spark an influx of new publications as well. These publications will have a major say in what gets boosted. And yes, publication editors will get paid.”

The announcement was a bombshell. In the near future, we publication editors will soon get paid by Medium for the hard work we do every day with all the passion that drives us. Victory! But for the moment it all seems very unclear since no details have been given since then on what looks like a new era for publication editors. We’ll get paid, but how?

So many unanswered questions at the moment. Probably because the program is still in the making. But how can we not wonder…

Will publication editors receive a fixed income in the form of a recurring bonus via the Partner Program, as has been the case in the past for some writers but in an ad hoc manner? Will the amount be the same every month, like the salary of an employee who comes to work every morning? In this case, how will the calculation be done? Or will we receive compensation for bringing to light stories that also caught Medium’s eye, like giving seeds to birds from time to time? Will the compensation be based on the audience of our publication or the reading time of stories that we have brought to the attention of Medium’s editorial team?

Will we be able to make a living from our work as editors, as some content creators make a living from their hard work on other platforms? Will the tons of hours spent here finally be recognized for their worth?

What is the future of the publications and their editors who do a monster job to keep them breathing and give all their energy to support writers without whom all this would not exist?

Many questions still remain, which I hope will soon be answered.