Medium is killing a key feature for new publications
“As of February 5th, you will no longer be able to request a story on Medium to be added to your publication.”
That’s the news in an email today from Medium “Head of Product” Michael Sippey.
According to the email
“We’re making this change to simplify how publications and writers work together on Medium. We want to alleviate confusion we’ve heard from writers about how “request a story” works, and what it means to have their stories included in a publication.”
Requesting stories has been one of the primary ways I’ve grown Pickle Fork. So you might understand that I’m very disappointed by this decision.
I understand why the feature might cause some confusion. For example, when I request a story the default wording of the message it sends says that I, as the publication owner, could “lock” a post and earn money from it. This isn’t true, since only a handful of larger publications have been granted that ability. Then, when someone does accept my request I still have to go and accept it as if it were a normal submission. This never made any sense to me. I requested it, why do I also have to approve the submission?
With all that said, why kill the feature instead of trying to fix it?
Going forward, if I am interested in adding a post from a new writer I will have to leave a comment or private note asking if they are interested, add them as a writer, and then they will have to submit the piece. This creates unnecessary steps for both publisher and the writer.
So I’m just going to throw this out there. If you want to be added as a writer to Pickle Fork, let me know in the comments or leave a private note and I’ll add you.
Clap if you still want to be able to request stories for your publication.
