Member-only story
ASK AN EDITOR
The Future of Medium after the Great Earnings Crash of 2025
A few thoughts
Medium is currently paying many writers a tiny percentage of what they used to pay us.
Writers are not happy about this.
And, being writers, we are writing about it.
In dozens of daily rants about the Great Earning Crash of 2025, we’re doing our best to demonstrate the truth of that old adage, Never Piss Off a Writer.
Medium could be in danger of devolving from a platform in which good writers write about everything under the sun to a platform where good writers grouse about not being paid enough.
Thanks, Medium!
I’m not thrilled about the new Paltry Payout system.
But? I’d like to give Medium credit for something.
Although we aren’t getting paid much to kvetch about Medium, we are getting paid.
And to my knowledge Medium hasn’t censored any of our rants, kvetches, and laments. Nor has it deleted the many calls for filing lawsuits, going on strikes and/or lowering the pay of the folks at the top.
When Scott Lamb published a post downplaying the current crisis, I asked him a couple of questions that challenged what he’d said. My questions inspired a tsunami of irate responses directed at Scott and Coach Tony.
Medium could have chosen to deal with that by deleting my response.
It didn’t.
The story I went on to write about the fact that Medium was only paying writers like me a pittance hasn’t been deleted either. In fact, I’ve gotten paid for it. Not much. (Right now, that story has been read by 975 people and has earned $7.07)
But I’ve gotten paid.
Where else is that going to happen?