Medium

Medium offers a publishing platform where writers can monetize their blogs, newsletters, and publications by applying to the Medium Partner Program and raising revenue via subscriptions (USD 5 monthly or USD 50 yearly) and via referrals. The founder of Medium, Evan Williams, is the co-founder of Twitter (2006) and Pyra Labs (1999), which created Blogger.

Writers are paid based on how much time members spend reading their content. As such, each member’s subscription payment is distributed to the relevant writer in proportion to their reading time every month. In August 2021, basic eligibility criteria (at least 100 followers, at least one published Medium story, live within specific geographic locations, content published in the last six months) was added to the Partner Program to ensure the platform directs earnings to active writers. Medium is set to implement a minimum payout threshold of USD 10, where a writer’s monthly earnings of less than USD 10 will be rolled over to the next month until the minimum threshold is met. Medium also introduced a referral program - Partner Program writers will have their own personalized referral landing page. For members who subscribe to Medium via their page, the writer will be able to receive half of that member’s subscription fee (minus the standard 2.9% + payment processing fees of USD 0.30) until the member’s subscription ends. The platform also provides built-in analytics and insight tools for writers to understand their readers and their interests.

The company claims it has more than 170 million readers as of December 2020. The company reported as of August 2021, Medium has paid out over USD 28 million to its writers since the Partner Program’s launch in 2017.

The company’s last funding round (Series C) was held in April 2016, when it raised USD 50 million at a valuation of USD 600 million. However, the company had faced several setbacks since (such as laying off 50 employees and closing down offices in New York and Washington in January 2017) and had also reported not to be profitable as of 2019.

In March 2021, Medium announced it would offer a voluntary exit option and redundancy package to its editorial employees, changing its model to focus on individual writers. According to the company, stories from in-house professional writers have attracted comparatively lower hit rates, yielding an insufficient return on investment.  However, Medium mentioned that its Amplify program, which offers editorial services to writers, was found to have worked well. The platform plans to invest in recruiting independent writers by reducing investments in the publications it launched in 2019. Medium intends to identify independent writers to provide deals, support, editing, and writing feedback to build its audience.

Medium acquired Knowable (November 2021), a learning platform that offers podcast-like courses, to help cater to those who seek audio-based education. Knowable will remain an independent product of the blogging platform. However, its offerings may be integrated into future Medium subscription bundles.