Dear Medium,
I love your platform, but what makes you special, it’s blind to the readers.
Yesterday, I wrote a self-published blog post about how I’m taking down the paywall on DiMeo Unfiltered. It’s my personal publication. I have it here and on Substack.
Then I got a text from a friend, “No more paywall?”
He has no idea that I’m talking about DiMeo Unfiltered, but not The Narrative Arc. And while he’s the only one speaking up, what I gather is, no one knows the difference.
I have family, friends, and co-workers who have paid subscriptions to Medium to support my work. They have no idea what they’re paying for.
I’m waiting for them to click on something from Namaste Now and send me a note, “I thought you were done with paywalls?”
My readers are confused, and I don’t blame them.
Think of it this way:
If you love Matthew McConaughey, you know where to find him: True Detective on HBO, Greenlights wisdom on his YouTube channel, his latest romcom on Netflix, and Lincoln commercials during football. The platform matters.
But when my fans read my stuff on Medium? They don’t notice whether they’re in Namaste Now, The Narrative Arc, or DiMeo Unfiltered.
They read something I’ve written that’s been accepted to a highly regarded publication and say, “Hey, Andrew, I like your blog.”
That’d be like watching season one of True Detective and saying, “Hey, Matthew, I like your YouTube.”
It’s not their fault. It’s Medium’s fault.
You’ve built something special and you’re not telling anyone about it.
Medium’s publication model, where independent editors curate writers into themed collections, is genuinely unique.
What’s happening on Medium is optional for writers (if they know about it), it’s a huge value add when they engage, and frustratingly, it’s more or less unknown to most readers.
In this model, I’ve grown as a writer. But I had to get super engaged to even figure it out myself. I attended a Medium Pub Crawl event, and was, like, “Oh! I see. They have publications! Okay!”
I went back and looked at some of my favorite blog posts and realized, “These aren’t blog posts! These are essays. In publications!”
When I reached out to the publications, I was largely ignored. At first. It was hard work to get noticed. To get invited as a writer. And that’s a good thing!
I’ve had essays rejected. I’ve had them bled all over. In the process, I’ve learned to write in different styles for different audiences. If I have something funny, I submit it to MuddyUm. That one. Phew! It’s HARD to be funny, and it took me forever to crack through that publication. Memoirs and personal essays, I submit to The Narrative Arc. Reflective works, I submit to Namaste Now!
I could go on. But, the point is, my readers. They don’t know.
“Hey, Andrew. Nice blog.”
I’m thinking, “That’s not a blog post. I worked hard for that.”
The distinction matters
That kind of team curation in a publication deserves a paywall. That’s how the editors make their money. That’s how the platform makes its money.
But when I self publish. That’s like going to catch Matthew on YouTube. You know you’re getting something raw. The barriers should be low.
Medium. Help a writer out, please.
Readers should be able to know the difference without me writing a rant like this.
Tell readers where they are. Tell them what they’re paying for. The editors deserve the credit. The readers deserve the context.
Dear readers,
Thank you for sticking with me through this rant. I’m not a fan of writing like this. But, then again, this is DiMeo Unfiltered. It’s raw, honest, and blog-like writing. This publication will always be free. No paywalls.
I’m going to continue submitting work to the highly regarded publications in Medium. When you encounter a paywall, there’s a reason. I earned a spot in a publication. An editor worked really hard. We collaborated to bring that writing together.
When you become a paid subscriber to Medium, your dollars go to support human writers and human editors who work together in meaningful community. We thank you!
(If you’re reading this on Substack, there’s never a paywall. If you become a paid subscriber, I guess you just really, really like me. I thank you!)
DiMeo Unfiltered is my back of the napkin publication featuring half-baked concepts, works in progress, blog-like posts, and personal opinions. This space is raw, authentic, and self-published.
Thank you for reading.
Health, happiness, kindness, respect
for every being and all things.
— Andrew
Andrew, rant welcomed. 🙏🏻 What frustrates me about Medium from Day One (for me) is the absolute dedication management has to opacity in data, pay structure,... and the actual purpose of publications. Are they trying to be magazines? Are they trying to use editors to establish a "higher quality of writing" than the other platforms? I can guess all day, but if Medium once explained their strategy in plain English, I'd have something to go on. I think Medium has truly great potential, they could be a real community platform that the community would rally around, be loyal to, and fight for, but they insist on keeping us in the dark, fed partial scraps after the fact, wondering when our plans for Medium will be thrashed and churned up once more. They went through a very tight financial step last year (this year?) and should now be more independent, but their behaviour hasn't changed at all.