Medium: what happened to the platform for bloggers and does it make sense today

Contents · 6 sections

1. What is Medium?
2. What has happened since 2016?
3. How do you earn on Medium?
4. Medium and SEO
5. The alternatives in 2025
6. Does Medium make sense for Bulgarian writers and…

In February 2016 I wrote an article about Medium, then "the new social network for bloggers", created by one of the founders of Twitter. I remember being surprised to find the same articles there that I was reading in The Guardian and The Economist. It looked like Medium would change the way we read and write online.

Nine years later, Medium is no longer new, but it has not disappeared either. The platform has gone through several big changes and today is something quite different from what I described back then. In this updated article we look at what happened to Medium, how writers earn there, whether it makes sense for Bulgarian writers and brands, and what the alternatives are.

What is Medium?

Medium is a platform for publishing long-form writing, launched on 15 August 2012. Its founder is Evan Williams, one of the creators of Twitter and Blogger. The idea is simple: anyone can write, and the platform takes care of design, distribution and readers. You do not need your own website, hosting or theme.

What has happened since 2016?

• January 2017: Medium drops the advertising model, lays off about 50 people and closes its offices in New York and Washington.
• March 2017: the paid membership launches at 5 dollars a month.
• August 2017: likes are replaced by "claps", and each reader can give up to 50 per story.
• October 2017: the Partner Program, through which writers earn from paywalled stories, opens to everyone.
• 2021: Medium gives up its own publications and bets fully on independent writers.
• July 2022: Evan Williams steps down and Tony Stubblebine becomes CEO.
• May 2024: new rules for AI-generated content. Such stories cannot sit behind the paywall and do not take part in the Partner Program.

Facebook, which tried to respond at the time with Instant Articles and Notes, abandoned those products long ago. Medium survived, though as a more niche platform.

How do you earn on Medium?

Medium has no banner ads. It is funded by membership, which costs 5 dollars a month or 50 dollars a year. Part of the revenue is shared among writers in the Medium Partner Program.

• You earn when paying members read your stories. A read counts after at least 30 seconds.
• Payment depends on engagement: reading time, claps, comments and highlights.
• Stories that editors pick for extra distribution (the so-called Boost) earn more.
• To take part you need an active membership, at least one published story, to be 18 or older and a bank account in a supported country. Bulgaria is one of the supported countries.

Realistically, serious income is possible for writers who publish regularly in English on topics with a big international audience: technology, programming, productivity, personal finance and entrepreneurship. For articles in Bulgarian the audience is too small to bring in money.

Medium and SEO

Many people worry that publishing the same article on their own blog and on Medium will cause a duplicate content problem. Medium has a solution: its import story tool automatically adds a canonical link to the original. That way Google understands that your website is the original source.

My advice is to always publish on your own website first and import the article into Medium only a few days later. That way the traffic and authority stay with you, and Medium works as an extra distribution channel.

The alternatives in 2025

• Substack: a platform for paid newsletters that reached 4 million paid subscriptions in November 2024. A good fit if you want a direct email relationship with your readers.
• LinkedIn newsletters: subscriptions to LinkedIn newsletters passed 450 million back in 2023. The best choice for B2B topics and a personal brand.
• Ghost and Beehiiv: modern blog and newsletter platforms with subscriptions, where you own the list of readers.
• Your own WordPress blog: full control, your own SEO and data. It takes more effort, but in the long run it is the most valuable asset.

Does Medium make sense for Bulgarian writers and brands?

In 2016 I wrote that Medium would probably not take off in Bulgaria, but that it would open us up to an international audience. I think that prediction proved right. Medium did not become a mass platform here, but it is still a good option if:

• you write in English and want to reach international readers;
• you are building a personal brand in technology or entrepreneurship;
• you want to test whether a topic has an audience without running your own website.

For businesses looking for customers in Bulgaria, the better combination is your own blog, LinkedIn and an email newsletter. Medium can be an extra channel, but not the foundation of your content marketing.