Medium Partner Program Update: New Requirements & Bonuses

Medium Announces Changes to its Partner Program

In the wake of organizational shifts and personnel changes, Medium has revealed substantial modifications to its Medium Partner Program. This program enables content creators on the platform to generate income from their published work.

Program History and Initial Structure

Established in 2012, Medium introduced its Partner Program in 2017. To date, the platform has distributed $28 million to over 200,000 writers. Initially, compensation was determined by the duration members spent engaging with a writer’s articles.

A Medium membership, costing $5 monthly or $50 annually, granted access to all platform content without encountering paywalls. A portion of each member’s subscription fee was then allocated to the writers they read, proportional to the time spent on their content.

Introducing a Referral Program

Medium confirms that earnings calculated on reading time will remain consistent. However, a new income stream will be introduced through the implementation of a referral program.

Previously, writers received credit for a reader’s engagement time if that reader converted to a paid membership within 30 days of reading their article. The revised system provides Partner Program writers with a unique referral landing page.

For each new Medium subscription acquired through a writer’s page, the writer will receive half of the member’s subscription fee, continuing as long as the subscriber maintains their paid status, less the standard payment processing charges of 2.9% + $0.30.

For instance, if a writer secures 100 new monthly Medium subscribers via their referral link, they could earn $227 each month.

New Eligibility Requirements

Becoming a Partner is now subject to stricter criteria. Writers must now possess at least 100 followers, have published a minimum of one Medium story, and reside within designated geographic locations.

Even Partners who meet these requirements risk losing their status if they do not publish new content within a six-month timeframe. Previously, achieving Partner status did not guarantee financial returns, with some writers earning only minimal amounts.

Current Partners will maintain their status until the end of 2021. Those who have not reached 100 followers by that time will be removed from the program.

Payout Threshold Changes

Medium will also implement a minimum payout threshold of $10. Any earnings below this amount in a given month will be carried over to the following month until the $10 threshold is met.

Membership Numbers and Competition

While historically reserved about its membership figures, Medium CEO Ev Williams stated in November that member numbers were in the “high hundreds of thousands.” Axios reported 725,000 members in March 2021.

Digiday previously indicated that Medium aimed for 1 million members by 2020. As of September, competitor Substack, founded in 2017, had 250,000 paid subscribers and secured a $65 million Series B funding round.

Medium’s last venture funding round occurred in 2016, raising $50 million in a Series C round.

Comparison with Other Platforms

Platforms like Substack and Ghost compensate writers based on the number of paying subscribers they attract. Medium’s new model encourages writers to drive readership to the platform, while retaining approximately 50% of the revenue.

Substack charges 10% for direct subscriptions to individual newsletters, and Ghost charges a flat fee of $9 per month. Medium subscribers pay a single $5 monthly or $50 annual fee for access to all content on the site.

The Expanding Newsletter Landscape

The newsletter market is increasingly competitive. Facebook launched Bulletin in June, featuring curated contributors, and Twitter acquired Revue earlier in the year.

Recently, Quora introduced Quora+, a monetization platform with a similar subscription cost to Medium. Like Medium, Quora+ provides access to all paywalled content, with writers compensated based on engagement.

Writers can also create paywalled posts within Spaces, user-created publications on Quora, where Quora retains a 5% commission on those payments.