The New Medium = YouTube for Writers
When Medium changed Recommends to Claps 👏 on August 10th, this was my first thought:

After memories of Jeb! campaign highlights subsided, I was left feeling a tad confused.
What was wrong with a good ol’ Recommend? Let’s test this out *click* Hmm, seems the same. I didn’t actually like this piece though, so let’s un-clap *unclick* What?! Now I clapped it twice! Ugh.
Very deep thoughts, I know — but I just wasn’t sure why the change was made. It seemed needlessly confusing for users. But then came this gem 12 days later:
Woah. Now 👏 makes sense. This is going to be huge. Medium is beginning to allow their community of creators to monetize their writing seamlessly. If this new Pay per Clap (the name I have affectionately christened it with) partner program fulfills its promise, then journalism is about to enter a new era. And no, that is not hyperbole.
Before this announcement Medium writers could only get paid if they were a part of partner program version 1. Partners submit series ideas to Medium. If approved, a writer signs a contract for a fixed fee at market rates. Medium staffers oversee the subsequent editing and styling process before posts are published. This process can take weeks. This new Pay per Clap partner program changes all that. No middleman. Once a story is written, simply publish and click the button to monetize. What took weeks now takes seconds. What was a fixed rate now reflects direct readership.

To fully understand the significance not just for the company, but for the industry, let’s look at what the same innovation has done for video in the past decade.
ANALOGY #1: YouTube
YouTube democratized videography in an unprecedented way. Before it, the only way to make money with videos was through big establishment-type companies. There were significant barriers to entry for the average person. You couldn’t just pick up a camera, shoot a video in the afternoon, and have the opportunity to be making money the same day. Fast forward to 2017, terms like YouTuber and creator are common. There are now people making millions of dollars a year from publishing videos to YouTube. Here’s a nice year-in-review of one such guy.
When a creator publishes a video, they are given the choice to monetize it or not. If they elect to do so, then ads are inserted before the video. Now every time someone watches the video, the creator makes a fraction of a cent. Multiply this over billions of views, and voila! You are a self-made YouTube millionaire! That is some serious motivation to put out quality content, which brings more viewers to YouTube, which grows your audience and your earnings, which you can then use to make more quality content, and on and on…
Does this model sound familiar? Yup, this is exactly what Medium is attempting to replicate. Writers will likely get a fraction of a cent for every clap (pay per clap).
“…each month [creators] will be paid based on the level of engagement [their] stories get from Medium members. Essentially, we look at the engagement of each individual member (claps being the primary signal) and allocate their monthly subscription fee based on that engagement.” — Official Medium Release
Although, it will probably be some time before there is a Medium-made millionaire (if ever). One major departure from YouTube, however, is the advertising bit. For this, we turn to analogy number two!
ANALOGY #2: Netflix
A fellow Medium creator wrote an excellent piece on how Medium is the Netflix of blogging:
Coincidentally, I just found out that with this new model non-members can read 3 member-only pieces per month.
So I won’t duplicate effort, but the basic premise is this: people pay for Netflix subscriptions because there is a huge amount of quality content on its platform. Similarly, readers searching for quality content would pay a subscription if they can find one place with a lot of it.
Medium is combining the democratic nature of YouTube with the subscription model of Netflix. That is what sets it apart from other online publishers. Medium’s readers will set the terms for what content should be written. Content now becomes what we want, not what big companies such as WSJ, NY Times, or Bloomberg think we want. The feedback loop has decreased by more than an order of magnitude and the creators will increase by an order of magnitude. That is why we are on the verge of a revolution in journalism similar to what YouTube and Netflix did for video. Join the movement.
Start Reading — Start Writing — Start Clapping
Obstacles to this Written Utopia
I wish I could end this there (I’m an idealist at heart), but I feel the obstacles Medium faces need to be addressed. There are no guarantees that this new program will be successful. Text and video are very different types of content, so what works for one may not work for the other. And beyond content limitations, Medium has had its fair share of missteps in its 5 years of existence. From getting and losing major contributors to leaving successful writers uninformed to major layoffs. Medium has consistently struggled and iterated during its crusade to fix journalism, while also trying to build a sustainable business model.
And I don’t expect this new foray to be any different. The Pay per Clap model may alienate readers if most content that used to be free moves behind a pay wall. Or Medium may tweak the Pay per Clap algorithm without telling writers, which could cause top creators to move their content (and followers) elsewhere. There are many things that can and probably will go wrong with this rollout.
But in spiteful of the potential problems, I am excited to see Medium experiment and try to push journalism and online writing forward. I will never fault someone for striving to make the world better. So good luck Ev Williams and the whole Medium Staff, I’ll be clapping for you.
“Medium is not about who you are or whom you know, but about what you have to say.” — Ev Williams

