What Medium Got Right and What It Got Wrong

I’m starting a Substack but that doesn’t mean I think Substack is “disrupting” Medium.

Serene Chen

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I’ve been a reader (avid) and a writer (more sporadically) on Medium since 2016. When I first discovered it, I was stoked that a platform like Medium existed where the belief behind the platform is that “words matter” and its promise was “to help you find the right audience for whatever you have to say”. It was perfect for someone like me (yes, an avid reader and sporadic writer). Over the years though, Medium has always felt like a teenager growing into its own and figuring out who they want to grow up to be.

While I’ve been thinking about this topic for awhile, the impetus to finally get this post finished was Medium announcing a few days ago that they were launching a new set of publishing tools to make Medium more expressive. I think this is a move in the right direction but definitely not enough and hopefully not too little too late.

Here begins a longwinded explanation of where I think Medium’s value is and why they haven’t managed to unlock that value yet.

But before we continue, if you’d like to visit my Substack, you can find it here. Also, I will continue being a paying Member on Medium — I can’t wait for the day they figure it out.

A Short History: From Ink to Internet

Pre-Internet, content was largely delivered by paper — an expensive, capital intensive endeavor. Most publications aimed to maximize reach by heavily subsidizing the price consumers paid with advertising revenue. Like publications and creators, advertisers were also interested in reaching the broadest audience possible.

Consumers relied on publications to regulate quality and it was with publications that consumers had the strongest relationship with. People were far more…

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Serene Chen

Blogging reflections on tech, growth, and life | Building Minecraft programs for neurodivergent youth at katapultplay.com