Medium’s New “Friends” Program Favours The Privileged
It will benefit those whose readers can afford triple the membership fees
Update: it’s already happening
Couldn’t sleep because I have a terrible head cold, so I’m up reading and writing at 4am. Lo and behold, there are already “friends” of Medium soliciting fellow 4xers to join groups and “support” each others’ work.
This is exactly what I was predicting. While the program is not intended to benefit writers who upgrade over others, it does and it will. People will solicit those reads over others, thereby paying more attention to their work, increasing their earnings as a result.
November 28, 2023
I opened the Medium app this afternoon and up popped a message inviting me to become a “friend of Medium”, along with a link to this article, written by Alex Benzer.
I thought I was already a friend of Medium. As someone who has been a consistent writer for more than 2 1/2 years, bringing more than 600 thousand views to this website, and earning a pittance for my labour, I’ve already gone above and beyond in supporting this business.
According to CB stock insights, Medium was valued at $600 million in 2016. I don’t know how that translates in terms of earnings for its five executives, but surely they can afford to pay us a little more without demanding more from those who already pay to support the platform.
I’ve searched a few times and have never been able to find Medium’s actual public net income statements. It is speculated that Medium grosses over $50 million each year, but that amount is unsubstantiated, and the business expenses are not accounted for in these figures.
New membership tiers
Apparently Medium has tried this before with little success, but they’ve rebranded the program, and are trying again. The base membership rate remains the same at $5 USD monthly, but Medium is now pushing a new “upgraded” membership which is $15/month or $150/year if you pay all at once.
In the article posted on Medium’s company blog, author Alex Benzer states that friends of medium will generate four times the revenue for writers when they read and interact with their work.
What I’m reading is that for those writers whose friends, followers, fans, and families can afford to pay triple the monthly fee, their monthly earnings could increase significantly.
For others who may put out incredibly strong content and write important articles, but whose biggest supporters cannot afford to triple their investment, they could potentially see a (however unintentional) decrease in their earnings.
How do I figure?
While Medium states that writers who join the friends program will not have an advantage over those who don’t in terms of visibility, it stands to reason that they will.
Writers and readers who are part of this new membership tier will be more likely to interact with one another, knowing they will earn more from each other’s support.
There are only so many members on Medium, only so many daily views, it is a likely outcome that those sets of eyes will be concentrated on the upper tier. Stories that receive more claps, comments, and read time generally become more visible.
It’s all part of this unspoken quid-pro-quo disguised as “writers supporting other writers”. This is often really about gaming the system and those who dedicate more time and effort to sharing their links in online groups and interacting with other writers end up with more views, rather than the strongest pieces of writing.
Please know, I am not trying to knock people who genuinely want to support their fellow writers.
This community has been incredibly supportive and it’s wonderful to help each other reach our writing goals. I’m differentiating between that type of authentic readership versus the “you read mine, I’ll read yours” behaviour that goes on in some online groups.
My primary concern
My main issue with this new membership tier is that people whose supporters can afford to upgrade will reap the benefits. Meanwhile people who may have incredibly valuable content will miss out on this opportunity if their supporters don’t have the extra funds to shell out.
Medium has long extolled the affordability of their membership program — only $5 USD/month! — which, with current exchange rates, is already nearly $7/month CAD. The friend’s rate of $15/month U.S. is over $20 Canadian.
If paying monthly that amounts to $240 per year. The annual fee of $150 USD would be approximately $205 CAD (variable depending on exchange rates). That’s a lot of money to many folks, especially when the cost of food and other essentials has been rapidly increasing.
Pull yourself up by the boot straps
After Medium made changes to its algorithm (changes that remain unclear) which had significantly negative impacts on many writers, some took to those aforementioned social media groups to vent and seek solidarity. In many cases, they did receive support from their fellow writers.
In some cases, people were given messages such as, “Medium doesn’t owe us anything” and “write better content and you’ll earn more”.
We’re not here as volunteers, trying to work to support a company while not getting paid. We’re working to produce content, to bring readers to this site, and expecting to receive a fair share of the dollars earned as a result.
My friends, have we learned nothing from the historical (and present) harms of capitalism?!
The lowly worker bees on the bottom echelons of company hierarchies have worked themselves to death (in some cases literally) for scraps while those already in the top 1% continue to reap the benefits of their poorly paid labour.
I’m not blaming Medium for the existence of capitalism, I promise.
What I am saying, though, is that this is a micro version of a larger systemic issue which both highlights and perpetuates the built-in inequities inherent in these systems.
In plain language: Medium’s owners and executives are raking in more and more money while the writers fight and work themselves into carpal tunnel syndrome, only to have our monthly earnings crash at the click of a button (or change in algorithm or policy).
Final thoughts
I don’t expect Medium’s creators and executives to volunteer their time and efforts either. Those who developed this platform, maintain it, and contribute their hard work and ideas to keep it running and growing absolutely deserve the biggest slice of the pie.
I’m not coming here holding my cap out, asking for handouts. I’m willing to put in the energy and effort, to make sure my writing is of high calibre and deserving of compensation. I’m not asking for “free money”.
I’ve been writing consistently on Medium for more than 2 1/2 years. To date, I have published 550 articles (this one will be #551). I think my writing has improved over the past few years. I’ve had several articles boosted.
I’ve published approximately the same number of articles in 2023 as I did in 2022. Despite changes purportedly intended to increase earnings and emphasize high-quality writing, I am on track to earn 18% less this year than I did in 2022.
Dear Medium, I am sorry to say, but we are not friends.
Friendship insinuates a balance of power. Medium holds most of the power while its writers are at the mercy of their algorithm and policy decisions.
I am grateful for this platform and community, for the opportunity it does provide writers to share our content and hone our craft. I truly am.
That doesn’t mean I don’t also want to benefit financially from my hard work.
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB
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I'm not surprised about any of this. They will not share any profits with the writers beyond what it is already given unless they become legally obliged to do so by the American government.
And, once again, Canadian contributors get screwed by a system that does not seem to recognize places other than the United States exist.