MEDIUM has a new Email Subscription Option

How it works, its limitations, and the questions it raises.

Dear fellow MEDIUM writers,

did you know that since December 8, 2020, the platform has had a new newsletter-like feature that lets followers subscribe to receive links to your stories via email?

In case you missed the announcement, I’ve summarized a few points of interest in regard to how the email subscription option works and what its limitations are. I also consider some issues and questions that the announcement doesn’t really address.

The Feature and its Limitations

• You can activate the feature — it is not on by default — by going into your profile, checking the “Followers” section and selecting the option to display a promotional subscription message on your profile and story pages. From this point forward, any story that you publish (or have published) to your profile will carry the subscription message.
• You’ll have the option of sending an email link to your subscribers only when you publish a new story to your profile.
• The subscription option is displayed for the followers only. Readers without a MEDIUM account cannot follow and therefore cannot see or utilize the subscription feature.
• Followers do not automatically become subscribers. One must first follow and only then, having followed, can one subscribe.
• As of this moment of writing, there is no option to follow…