We’re Witnessing A Writing Platform Crunch Like No Other

Medium, Vocal, and Newsbreak are all suffering. What’s up?

So, I don’t think that I have to tell anyone who is a writer by trade that we’re dealing with very tough times. Medium has been dropping its earnings, and it doesn’t look like things will improve.

People have been looking for other pastures to work with now that Medium has basically thrown up its middle fingers. Two of the biggest competitors outside of Substack are Newsbreak and Vocal.media.

If you’re in my shoes, you wrote on both. Now, things are starting to look grim for them too. Here’s what I personally noticed with each, and what I’d suggest for writers who want to still earn online…

Let’s start with Newsbreak.

I’ll be honest. Newsbreak has never been something I’ve enjoyed writing for. They allow AI (bad) and their comments section scares me. This is the writing platform where writers can’t block commenters, which makes things pointedly toxic.

Comments are often deranged and negative. Or, they’re racist. You can write, “The sky is blue,” here and you will find at least two commenters who will say, “It’s Biden’s fault. MAGA.”

I’ve never made more than $1,200 a month here. The algorithm is all over the place, which means that you can write a banger of an article and get no views, or you can write the same thing as everyone else and get over 500,000 views.

Lately, my earnings shrank from $500 to about $100 this month. I’m kind of over it. I’m getting less and less money for the same effort. (Story of my life, I guess.) I’m not alone, most others are seeing the same result.

Newsbreak itself is growing rapidly, primarily because it is very popular with right-wing users and because there are incentives to get downloads. Nowadays, the incentives to get writers and users are often higher than the incentive to write local news.

That’s not a good sign. That’s a sign that it’s going to turn into a pyramid scheme-like thing with almost no decent writing. You can’t pay people pennies and expect good shit to happen.

My Verdict: To be honest, I’ll probably just drop this outlet unless I am incentivized to write about it or if I have to get news from someone I know out. Or, you know, as a portfolio padder.

Vocal.media is the other Medium competitor struggling.

via Author

Okay, so full disclosure, I used to work at Vocal.media in-house. Like, I’ll show photos of the old warehouse we had before we moved locations to a more fancy office. So, this particular business is one I’m very well-versed in.

I started working there when they were in an old warehouse. They had a ton of artwork there, including a 10-foot-tall Romper Zombie stature. (Or, as a former coworker would say, “Romper Zombies…I hate those fucking things.”)

The old warehouse

I got a lot of free swag because they also held a lot of stuff from Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse and OMNI. It’s wild to think that I was on the tail end of that legacy.

Me at the old warehouse, near some of the amazing artwork that graced the place.

Though there was a lot of work with celebrities, the truth is that it was and still is a Wall Street organization. They believe in corporate power, hierarchy, and fundraising the old-fashioned way. It was an unbelievably high-pressure job.

By the time they moved house, it was absolutely Wall Street-style pressure-cooker work. If you made it two years here, I guarantee you that you could last anywhere, assuming it didn’t break you. It was that hardcore.

The view from my old office after the warehouse era.

Vocal started off with the idea of digital arbitrage — the monetization of content. They wanted to do something a little different than others. They wanted to have a Medium-like platform that had no ads, would pay per view, and it would be a blue chip stock.

Hell, I walked away from my two-year tenure with 200,000 stock options. At one point, that was worth over 1 million dollars. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The stock is worth about $0.02 now…so…Like, I could get $2000 if the fucking things would vest. Yay.

Lately, Vocal has been begging people to get Vocal+. People didn’t bite. Now, they’re urgently encouraging people who write for the platform to invest in it as stockholders. This is my sign that something is very wrong.

Vocal only pays $3 per 1,000 views. They don’t have a strong discovery system like Medium does. They only recently started doing pledges and memberships to writers. Most people I know on Vocal do not make as much money as they do on Medium.

The platform has always struggled. I honestly think that, if they had simply started up as Medium began to fail, Vocal could have poached top writers and turned things around. However, it’s looking like it’s too late for them. It was a matter of timing and not understanding writing that made them struggle.

Wall Street people (like the ones who started Vocal) do not turn to crowdfunding unless they are on the brink of implosion. I’m of the belief that they’re really hard up for money if they are crowdfunding like this. Knowing that, I’m not so sure it’ll be around for much longer.

Verdict: I would back up any writing you have there on another platform, just in case.

Medium is…ugh, I hate this.

My own stats here. So let’s just be blunt: Medium is hiding stories. There are people demanding bribes for nominations. You can get nominated and not actually get a boost. The earnings are slashed. The discovery system is gone.

Medium has made it clear that they don’t care about writers. Tony warned us that full-time writers like me should not view Medium as a full-time career, which was his way of saying he was going to slash income.

I’m not going to lie, I feel personally hit by the behavior of the staff — though I am far from the only one. I’m not going to rant about how the staff destroyed communities, livelihoods, and the trajectory of their site because I’ve already done that.

Verdict: So, I’m still posting on Medium and occasionally hoping for a boost. As soon as I can do so, it’ll be turned into a funnel for getting people to subscribe to my Substack.

No matter where you look, we’re seeing a huge crunch in online publishing.

I’m not entirely sure how many more of these sites will be around for much longer. More importantly, I’m not sure how many of them will be making time worth it for writers who want to make a living. So, what happens now?

Honestly, I’d lean on companies that look more stable and start expanding shit. Here’s what I’d do and am doing:

• Right now, I’m accepting clients for work. If you want me to write for your business, I can.
• I’m also working on new projects. I’m currently working on starting up my own art business. I figure selling cheap art and flipping others’ artwork can make for a good side gig.
• I’m also trying to find a full-time job writing. Sure, the pickings are slim, but you never know. I’ve put my application out there. If you know anyone who’s hiring, let them know I’m available.
• I’m also going to be going beyond writing into podcasting and video. A new YouTube? Maybe. More likely, a new TikTok. Or something. Ugh.
• Save that email list. I really wish I pushed harder on that when Medium was good. Email lists do convert. Followers on platforms? Not so much.
• Find your allies, and collaborate. This is how you build empires. You work with other people and you back each other up. A good network is worth its weight in gold.

Paid writing is not going anywhere. However, it will change forms.

Writing is just like any other industry. It will change. What people want will evolve. You need to make sure you evolve with it. With a little work, you will be able to weather the worst of it. Just have faith in it, tend to your stuff, and you’ll be okay.