Does Medium Have A Future?
Can Medium go large?
The tectonic plates shift, and life briefly speeds up. Ground-breaking articles are a bit like buses: you wait for ages and then two turn up at once, though in this case the dilapidated buses seem to have emerged from a backstreet scrapyard, with rusting bodywork, data scientists at the wheel, and bits dropping off.
Long, hard thought went into how to respond to a couple of recent articles on Medium, at least by my standards. The current rate of exchange is that a hundred of my thoughts are worth one of a normal person, and since I generate thoughts at the rate of about one a week, things are not going well. Speaking of normality, there is not much in my household: even the doors are unhinged.
I was brought up on the principle that if you can’t think of anything nice to say, it is better to say nothing at all, but I need a few vices to make life borderline tolerable, so here goes.
In case you missed it, the first article is by Medium head honcho and spelunking saviour Tony Stubblebine, about how he single-handedly saved the world, which perhaps proves that satire is still alive and well:
https://medium.com/the-coach-life/fell-in-a-hole-got-out-381356ec8d7f
It strikes me as one of the longest suicide notes in history, though a Labour Party manifesto already took this epithet some time ago. You might want to put the article on readback at quadruple speed to save yourself too much pain.
To be briefly charitable, through gritted teeth, I must acknowledge that to salvage a failing company does deserve some credit, but the way it has been achieved sows the seeds of future destruction.
It is a bit like a doctor claiming success for removing all ill patients from their list by bumping them off, the Dr. Harold Shipman school of publishing. Medium has become what “Eddie the Eagle” was to British ski jumping.
Yes, mirabile dictu, it is possible to be briefly profitable if you stop paying your suppliers. Even I can work that out. However, this is not a sensible long-term business strategy if you seriously p*ss them off in the process.
What has happened is perhaps a case study in what happens when you put a numbers guy, a bean counter, or data scientist, in charge of a people business.
If we have worked in a large organisation, we may have come across senior managers like this. They are often exceptional at the technical side of their field of expertise, rising through the ranks like the living embodiment of the Peter Principle, but they can’t relate well with people. It is just as well that some CEOs did not enter the diplomatic service, or we would be at war with Mars by now, and yes, I did tone that down.
If I was really petty, I could point out that there is an AI-generated picture at the top of the article, and all such pictures are meant to be labelled as AI-generated if Medium is serious about clamping down on the use of the technology (spoiler alert: it isn’t). But I’m not that petty, so I won’t mention this.
Then there is an article by Zulie Rane who is “Product Storyteller”, and Zulie can certainly tell a good story. It is about why Medium is better than Substack, though to be honest it feels a bit like a desperate Betamax employee trying to argue why it is better than VHS, or Clive Sinclair trying to flog a Sinclair C5 next to a Lamborghini salesperson, a salesperson for square wheels, or the manager of Forest Green Rovers claiming the team will score lots of goals next season (they won’t).
You know from bitter experience, that the enterprise is destined for failure, like expecting England to win a penalty shoot-out. Better just to accept disappointment rather than raise your hopes and continue 60 years of hurt. Moving swiftly on……
https://medium.com/blog/medium-versus-substack-six-reasons-writers-pick-medium-4c27b0501669
Medium is clearly rattled by the Biblical exodus to Substack, to the extent that one can no longer export your list of subscribers from Medium – part of the email address is redacted.
Top talent from Medium, like effing Jason Provencio led the way, like some latter-day Moses parting the Red Sea to lead his followers to a better land, though in Jason’s case Biblical references may not be the best to use. I note that Jason seems to have given up commenting on the state of Medium which is probably just as well for his blood pressure, as he has plenty of targets elsewhere.
Numerous other high-quality writers have abandoned Medium in disgust at the earnings collapse, or hardly publish there, and drop in occasionally to catch up with old friends, like a former regular dropping into their dingy and neglected local, to renew acquaintance with the alcoholics propping up the bar, to reminisce about their former glory days.
Where to start? Well first of all, I am writing this on Substack, which perhaps speaks for itself. There are several reasons for this. One is that Medium no longer pays for ”meta” articles (writing about the platform), which has understandably annoyed many, leading to workarounds, such as that one wag, leading dealer, Carlo Zeno, uses the code of “feta” when referring to meta: get your better feta from Carlo if you are suffering withdrawal symptoms. Though be warned that it may be in verse.
I might have replied in the comments to Tony and Zulie, but I didn’t want to appear a stalker, and in a way, Medium is their toy to play with however they want. If you want to put your precious Scalextric set into the garbage disposal unit, I guess that’s up to you.
There is also the case of not biting the hand that feeds you, but this carries less weight if the hand is now feeding cents. However, Medium is still calling the shots, and whoever pays the piper calls the tune.
Speaking of tunes, Medium now reminds me of a school orchestra tuning up. Most people in the audience smile sympathetically out of parental duty, but cringe inwardly. The main problem with primary school orchestras, is that as members improve at their instruments, they are just getting to a reasonable standard, when they move up to “big school”, so the orchestra never improves overall, leaving a data scientist conductor frantically waving the baton. Zulie is banging away on the kettle drum. A violinist is badly out of tune. The mission is doomed to failure unless the formula is changed. More authors will switch to Substack’s “big school” unless there is a major change of approach.
What can we expect next in this flurry of Medium communication? A trilogy? An article by a dismissed former staff member such as:
“Why Medium is still the best thing since sliced bread”?
Since I briefly enthused about Medium, I can hardly fail to disappoint you and include a link to my ebook below, but to be honest, I couldn’t recommend the platform (or my book) any more to someone starting out. It is probably just as well that I didn’t pursue a career in marketing.
Medium needs to a huge change in direction and the relationship with writers, starting with a Writers’ Panel, since I am still banging that drum. I understand that a new “Community Manager” is to start something similar, so I live in hope, but a bit like supporting Forest Green Rovers, you just know it is going to be doomed to failure without a change of manager, a new team of players, and a new owner with very deep pockets.
“It strikes me as one of the longest suicide notes in history”
😂😂😂
I couldn’t even get through it. I just skimmed it. See, if it had been a poem it would have ended much sooner.
Not paying your suppliers. Perfect analogy.