medium.com
What Medium.com is actually optimizing for (and why it feels different from other writing platforms)
Medium is built around a bundled subscription, not ads and not “pay this creator directly.” Readers pay for membership, then Medium shares a portion of that membership revenue with writers through the Medium Partner Program. That single design choice ripples through almost everything else: what gets recommended, what gets monetized, and what kinds of writing tends to do well.
On the membership side, Medium currently sells two tiers: “Medium Member” at $5/month or $50/year, and “Friend of Medium” at $15/month or $150/year, with extra support/benefits layered on top.
On the creator side, Partner Program earnings are tied to what paying members do with your story, not raw clicks. Medium explicitly calls out member read time (members-only stories earning after a member reads for 30 seconds and then more with longer reading), plus “positive interactions” like claps/highlights/replies, plus follower and Boost bonuses.
The practical consequence: Medium tends to reward writing that keeps attention and feels like it respected the reader’s time, not writing that spikes curiosity for five seconds and then disappoints.
How distribution works: three lanes, and Boost is the one people misunderstand
Medium’s own Help Center breaks distribution into three categories: Network Distribution, General Distribution, and Boost. Network is the baseline: your followers (and publication followers, if you published in one) can see it. General expands beyond your followers to readers likely to care based on interests and reading patterns. Boost is a curated “push” for stories Medium is especially proud to surface across the homepage, emails, apps, and more.
One detail that matters if you’re trying to reverse-engineer performance: these categories mostly affect discovery inside Medium (app, site, digests). Medium notes that stories can still be found via direct links, search engines, social, etc., regardless of category. So even if a story never takes off “in Medium,” it can still perform from external traffic—you just won’t get the same in-network acceleration.
Boost itself is framed as human curation, seven days a week, with stories sourced both from internal discovery tools and from the Boost Nomination Program (publication editors and community nominators feeding candidates). This is where Medium’s vibe differs from platforms that are either purely algorithmic or purely audience-owned (email lists). There’s an editorial layer, but it’s not classic newsroom commissioning; it’s selective amplification.
What “quality” means on Medium is more specific than most people think
Medium publishes pretty direct signals about what it looks for in Boost-worthy stories. It’s not just “good writing.” It’s “this writer has a compelling reason to write this,” credible first-hand experience, authenticity, and the piece being meaningfully non-derivative (fresh perspective, not a recombination of what’s already everywhere). It also calls out craftsmanship: clear sourcing, strong narrative, appropriate length, useful images, accessibility basics like alt text, and titles/subtitles/cover images that give real context in the feed.
Medium even states outright that a Boost-worthy story “does not appear to be generated by Artificial Intelligence.” That’s not a vague preference; it’s part of how they define the top distribution lane.
So if you’re publishing on Medium, it helps to think in two separate goals:
- write something genuinely useful/interesting so it earns with members who read it, and
- package it and position it so it can qualify for broader distribution without tripping any disqualifiers.
Publications are not just “groups,” they’re distribution infrastructure
Medium publications behave like mini-brands with their own follower base and sometimes newsletters. When you publish in a publication, you’re not only posting “under a label.” You’re plugging into a different distribution pipe: publication followers via digest emails and Following feeds, plus publication newsletters if the editors send them.
That matters because Medium’s network is crowded. If you publish only on your profile, your early reads are often limited to your follower graph (or whatever external traffic you bring). Publishing into a publication can give you an initial audience that’s already pre-filtered for the topic area. It doesn’t guarantee quality signals, but it changes the starting conditions.
Also, Medium added a stat called “Presentations,” which is basically “how many times Medium suggested your story to readers on the website or app.” That’s a rare example of a platform showing creators a more honest top-of-funnel number, so you can separate “nobody saw it” from “people saw it and bounced.”
Monetization mechanics: the Partner Program is closer to “subscriber value” than ad RPM
Medium’s Partner Program is framed as sharing membership dues when members read and engage with your stories. The payout logistics also matter: payouts typically get initiated by the 10th of the month, and Medium set a $10 minimum earnings threshold (as of August 1, 2024) before a payout is sent to Stripe, with rollover if you don’t hit it that month.
The bigger strategic insight is what the system pushes writers toward:
- fewer, higher-effort stories (Medium literally recommends spending more time on fewer high-quality stories to reach the Boost bar)
- stronger retention and genuine interaction (not just drive-by traffic)
- an audience that returns (follower bonus is explicitly part of earnings)
That’s why Medium sometimes feels slow compared to growth hacks elsewhere. But it can be steadier if you’re writing in a niche where people actually sit and read.
Medium’s AI policy is basically a quality and trust policy wearing an AI label
Medium allows AI assistance in limited ways (like grammar/spell check) without disclosure, but requires disclosure if text or images are generated by AI. It also lists specific “no” zones: AI-generated content made just to rank in SEO to push affiliate links, AI-based derivative remixing that closely resembles the original (treated as plagiarism), and content with easily disprovable hallucinated facts.
Two practical takeaways here:
- Medium is treating “AI slop” as an ecosystem risk, not just a creator choice. They’re explicitly connecting it to spam and to reader trust.
- If your writing depends on credibility (health, finance, newsy explainers), Medium is telling you upfront that sloppy fabrication is a policy issue, not merely “bad content.”
The business backdrop: Medium has been in “make it work” mode, and it shaped the product
Medium’s recent product posture makes more sense when you look at its turnaround story. In July 2025, reporting on CEO Tony Stubblebine described how Medium went from losing about $2.6M per month when he joined in 2022 to staying profitable since August of the prior year, through a mix of restructuring and operational changes.
Why this matters for writers: platforms under financial stress tend to tighten incentives and enforcement. Medium’s emphasis on quality, the mechanics of Boost, and the stronger stance on AI-generated paywalled content all fit a platform trying to protect subscription value. If members feel the feed is full of low-effort junk, they churn. Medium can’t afford that in a subscription model.
Key takeaways
- Medium’s core loop is membership revenue → distribution → writer payouts, so it rewards retention and reader satisfaction more than raw clicks.
- Distribution has three lanes (Network, General, Boost), and Boost is curated amplification with explicit quality signals.
- Publications are a real distribution advantage because they bring followers and newsletters, not just branding.
- Medium is actively policing AI-generated and spammy SEO content, and it expects disclosure for AI-generated text/images.
- The payout system is operationally structured (Stripe, monthly cycle, $10 threshold) and nudges writers toward consistency and quality.
FAQ
Is Medium still worth publishing on if I already have my own site or newsletter?
It can be, because Medium can function as a discovery layer. Even if you publish elsewhere first, Medium’s distribution (especially through publications and Boost) can introduce you to readers you won’t reach through your own channels. Just be intentional about what you republish and how you differentiate it.
What’s the single biggest lever for getting more reach on Medium?
Publishing inside the right publication is usually the fastest non-gimmicky lever because it changes your initial audience and puts your work in front of people already following that topic hub.
Do I need to be a paying member to join the Partner Program?
Medium says a membership subscription is not required to apply to the Partner Program.
How does Medium handle AI-written posts?
Medium requires disclosure for AI-generated text/images, forbids certain AI spam patterns (especially SEO/affiliate farming), forbids close-derivative “remix” behavior as plagiarism, and flags hallucinated factual claims as not allowed.
What does Medium mean by “Presentations” in story stats?
It’s the count of how many times Medium suggested your story to readers on the app or website, which helps separate distribution from conversion (people seeing it vs choosing to read).
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