The New Medium Partner Program Might Have a Surprise For Us Later
I have a theory that MPP earnings might have a surprise boost at the end of the month
There’s been a lot of disgruntled writers in the Medium message boards this month, ever since Medium changed their payment system on October 28. The difference I’ve seen is that most of the creators are unhappy (especially poets and comic creators). But, some writers are very happy with their new results.
From what I can see, the happy writers are the prolific ones that already have a good following and ability to make a few hundred (if not more) a month. That’s just my observations and I may be wrong, of course.
There might be a surprise in store
I have an inkling though, that come December, we will see a shift in that disgruntled mood.
Why?
Because Medium started showing earnings each day instead of each week.
If Medium calculated payments based on a specific unit (ex. $1 per 1 read), I wouldn’t have an argument to make.
But they don’t.
Medium calculates payments based on MPP member’s monthly reading and is derived as a split of their monthly fee.
The difference between monthly source funding and daily payment statements is the butt of my point here.
So what might happen?
My theory is that Medium will have to do a monthly reconciliation of all the read times of a user.
I think that the daily payment calculations we can view now have a conservative margin calculated into them and that at the end of the month, this margin will be rectified in the form of a higher payment to the writers.
Why would Medium give us lower daily amounts than we would end up receiving later anyway?
Simply because they cannot do the opposite.
Imagine if most writers on Medium were being told they made $10 a day and at the end of the month they only receive $8 per day — there would be outrage!
Now, if Medium adds in a margin of conservatism to purposely show the daily rates lower, there will be a little griping (like we’ve been seeing) throughout the month.
But fast forward to the final payment on the 8th of the following month and users see 10–20% more than they expected? Wooo, all hail Medium!
TLDR Logic
- Medium writers’ source of funding is from MPP members’ monthly subscription fees
- An individual article’s payments are calculated based on the split of those members’ reading times (ie. 10% of a member’s total read time per month = 10% of the portion of the $5 monthly subscription that is paid out)
- Medium now shows writers what they make each day
- Medium is not psychic, no matter how powerful their algorithms are
- Medium cannot possibly know 100% what an article makes in a day (with the system they’ve stated they use)
- Medium wants to minimize outrage when making changes to their platform
- Since they cannot know exactly what an article makes each day but are telling the writers anyway, they would need to add in a margin of safety (ie. show lower earnings until the end of the month reconciliation)
- Medium would then payout that margin on the 8th of the following month, resulting in a ‘bonus’ of sorts to the writers
The above is just my theory and of course, I could be wrong. But I do think I’m onto something as there is a logical gap in the daily vs monthly sources.
And hey, if I’m right, then most of us get a little boost at the end of the month!
And if I’m wrong, then who cares! :P
‘Rant’ over.
Have a wonderful day and check out some of my other stuff here. — J.J. Pryor
