What To Do Now That Medium Publications Are Dead?

Start your own, of course

Medium publications are dead.

Ev told us so in his most recent announcement about Medium. He shared that the Medium-sponsored publications would lose the financial support they’ve been receiving. Medium started several of these Medium-sponsored publications a couple of years back to attract a following, but these publications haven’t quite lived up to their expectations.

Here’s why the Medium CEO was balking at going further into Medium:

“What’s worked less well is where we’ve followed the traditional editorial playbook — specifically, commissioning stories from professional writers into publications with broad mandates.”

He says that while the subscriber base grows, the following for Medium publications has not. There are a couple of things the company plans to do to address this issue.

“To adapt to these learnings, in 2020, we started doing two things: a) Lowering the commission budgets of our O&O pubs, to make them more sustainable. b) Redirecting editorial resources to finding and supporting independent writers, who were publishing on Medium outside of our pubs.”

Since Medium doesn’t think that broad-topic publications that are curated by professional editors are working, Medium is going to go in a different direction of supporting independent writers who are publishing outside of the Medium-owned publications.

What should be your next step then?

It’s time to start your own publication

The most recent update from Ev Williams from March 24, 2021, says that Medium publications are going to be phased out on Medium and there will be more importance given to the individual writer. You can read my entire analysis of this statement here in this post.

I also reflected on Ev’s previous statement on August 29, 2020, where the Medium CEO calls for a more relational Medium.

“The new app is reoriented around following — so that readers can be sure they’re not missing anything from writers they love, and those writers and publications can more actively engage and grow their audience,” Ev writes.

The platform seems to be moving towards a more relational kind of experience. If you follow a person or publication, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of their stories as opposed to stories from curated Medium publications.

We, as writers, are the clear winners. People who like your writing will follow you, read you, and see more of your stories through the platform.

So, why start your own personal publication on Medium now?

If you start your own publication,

• You are creating your own magazine and are giving people more reasons to come back and read your writing.
• The publication feature makes your page look like a magazine with plenty of your own stories on there. Viewing your personal page without a publication is painful. It’s just story after story and you have to scroll for days to see the rest of a writer’s stories.
• A publication will have a nice layout, theme, an about page and gives people a better idea of who you are, what topics you’re writing about, and what stories are available to read.
• They may love your writing, but your readers may also want to see work from other people who are writing along with the same themes and topics as you. They want you to curate stories for them that are like your stories.

Your page goes from a collection of individual stories on your personal account to something that looks more like a website or blog. People will see not just your most recent story, but all of your stories. People can follow your publication and dig into your other stories.

To give you an example of what this looks like, check out a couple of writer friends who have started publications. Check out the brand new publication Tone Squared by Tony Young, Jr. and By Anthony Body by you guessed it, Anthony Boyd. Have a look at their layout, their menu of topics, their about page, and how much visually better this looks than an individual writer page with story after story.

If you write about a topic that resonates and features other writers in your publication, people will keep coming back to read your publication. Featuring other people in your publication will make your publication more interesting to more people. They get to read you and the stories you curate for your publication.

Even if you don’t feature other writers, your publication will look better, give readers a better visual experience when reading and give them an opportunity to see more of your stories.

What type of publication to start?

Not a general one that has lots of issues and topics. Let’s look at the ones that Medium-sponsored publications. They were distinguished publications from top writers and editors, but I sure the heck didn’t read them. They covered many topics and were all over the place. Yes, they were great writers from top universities but didn’t resonate with the audience. They were not my go-to place to read articles.

What publications do I read? I read ones that are completely focused on the topics that I enjoy reading. Medium friends have started publications like Mystic Minds about spirituality, Muddy Um featuring humor stories, The Chameleon featuring true crime stories, and Writers’ Blokke which covers writing. Each one of these niche publications only covers a certain type of story and will be a strong attraction for readers who are interested in those niches.

Medium is ultimately a place where we read by topic. If you’re interested in a particular topic on Medium, you want to read all about that topic. If you care about politics, you want all about it. If you care about personal development, you want to read all about it.

You may want to write about every topic, but I would discourage you from doing that. I see a lot of writers writing about every topic under the sun. While you can be successful writing about every topic, the shortcut to Medium success is narrowing your topics. Start broad and see what resonates. I wrote about every topic out there but started looking at my stats. I noticed my articles on writing, relationships and personal growth did well, so I narrowed and focused.

I’ve since created a couple of publications to address each of these topics that I write about. I’ve created one for relationships and one for writing. Whenever I self-publish to my own publications, I’m going to make sure the writing posts go in the writing publication and the relationship posts go in the relationship publications. By the way, the focus of my publications has changed from when I first started it and based on reader interest.

My 2 cents is to write about many topics as well, but keep your eye on narrowing. Figure out what people want from you and what you enjoy writing. Figure out which posts resonate and then double down on those posts and topics. Become the best poet you can in a new poetry publication. Become the best financial writer you can in a financial-oriented publication. Become the most helpful relationship writer you can in a relationship-focused publication.

When people come to your publication, let them read the article they came for and then other similar articles on similar topics. A publication will make it easier to find your other articles. Turn individual readers into fans of your own magazine: your publication. Continue to provide the content they’re looking for and they’ll continue to read and follow you. Create a better web of articles and a better visual experience to read your articles.

Medium-sponsored publications are dead, but there’s no better time for you to start one.

This is an open discussion to gather the best ideas out there. Please share your experiences, thoughts, and commentary below on publications, and let’s discuss helping other writers out.