Medium Makes Sense.

Hey honeys and hustlers,

Medium should be an easy yes for me, and quite frankly, most people. A place to write, a place to read, and a subscription that opens the door to support work from lots of different writers with one payment. Lovely. Everything people say they want from Substack. My bank account would like to nominate this idea for an award. And yet, every time I consider spending more time there, I hesitate. It’s not that I think Medium is bad. It’s not that I think the writing on Medium is subpar. It’s that the thing Medium makes simple isn’t quite the thing most writers, myself included, are trying to build.

As a reader, I understand the appeal. There’s something refreshing about paying for access to a whole ecosystem of writing rather than deciding, publication by publication, who gets a slice of your monthly reading budget. You can follow your curiosity without doing subscription math at every turn. One essay leads to another, and suddenly you’re reading about urban planning when you originally came for advice on organizing your desk. A respectable internet rabbit hole. We love to see it.

As a writer, though, I want more than a place where someone might encounter my work. I want a way for us to keep finding each other. That’s where my affection for the inbox comes in. Not because email is glamorous. Email is where receipts, dentist reminders, and someone’s “just circling back” are all in the same place, but with varying levels of importance. But it’s also a place where a reader can deliberately invite you to return. A newsletter subscription says, “Send me the next one.” There’s a rhythm to that invitation that feels different from hoping someone opens an app or searches a website and remembers you’re there.

Medium feels blog-first to me. I’m looking for something relationship-first. Most people who find the allure of escaping social media algorithms are. To its credit, Medium allows readers to share their email addresses with writers. That’s cool. A small step. But an available feature and a compelling habit are two different things. If readers already get what they need inside the platform, what makes handing over their email worth the extra step? And if writers still need another set of tools to turn those addresses into an ongoing newsletter relationship, asking for them becomes another task with another setup process attached.

The door exists. I’m just not convinced there’s enough reason for everyone to walk through it. That friction becomes more noticeable when I think about making a business out of my writing. Earning money through a platform and building a publication readers choose to support directly aren’t interchangeable ambitions. I want room to shape what I offer, how I charge, and how I stay connected to the people who care about the work. Convenience is useful, but so is having a say in how the whole operation runs.

None of this means Medium isn’t doing great work for writers. Writer’s Circles, Medium Day, and webinars around TK suggest an effort to give writers more than a publish button. I’m curious about TK, even if, from where I’m sitting, it still feels more like something I’m waiting to try out of curiosity rather than something that will change my writing life and make me leave my current writing tools.

But new tools alone won’t settle my hesitation. I’d need to feel that building an ongoing reader relationship was central to the experience, not a side project. Of course, that may be asking Medium to solve a problem it doesn’t need to solve for everyone. The current CEO has stated that he never wanted to chase the likes of Substack. He’s chasing someone who wants to share their expertise, develop a portfolio, or get better at writing and may not want the full newsletter-business starter kit. They may want to publish a thoughtful essay without also choosing an email provider, mapping a welcome sequence, and accidentally becoming the unpaid operations manager of their own sentences.

Fair. Extremely fair.

There’s value in a space that invites you to explore the craft without insisting every paragraph become a product. I don’t want every writer to feel obligated to build a media company. Some people want a writing practice. Some want a useful home for their ideas. Some would like to finish an essay without being asked about their conversion funnel. These are reasonable aspirations.

So my hesitation isn’t a verdict on Medium. It’s a question of fit. I can appreciate the shared reading subscription and the space to practice writing while still wanting a different kind of connection with my readers. I’m not just looking for somewhere to put the work. I’m looking for a way to keep the conversation going after meeting someone on social media. Medium may be a perfectly good place to do that. And if that’s all you’re looking for – community without a hard commitment, a space to explore the craft of writing with others who are doing the same, the occasional comment from a random reader – then maybe I do wholeheartedly recommend it.