Let's assume that after a week or so of behind-the-scenes work, the current formula and system for earnings is close to what Medium thinks is about right.
It perhaps disregards entirely certain reads from certain readers, to discourage fake engagement groups and patterns of behaviour, and results in a level per variable 'read unit' based on all the known factors that they feel is financially viable for them.
This is Medium's new normal.
Essentially what that means is that the platform ceases to have any value for earnings purposes. It is simply a $5/month blogging platform, which may give you your money back at the end of the month, or a small 'profit' of up to $50-100, which for the majority of users in developed economies will be trivial - less than a cup of (overpriced) high street coffee per day.
The message is: write, if you like, but don't do so even thinking of this as a worthwhile side gig. It's just for fun. This would simply be the next level of the CEO's explicit statement that 'no one should try to make a living from Medium'.
Fair enough, if the money isn't there in the pot to offer any greater rewards. An occasional viral piece may win a lottery prize of a few hundred, but otherwise you simply get a refund of your fee, or a little more.
This then raises a couple of points.
First, the CEO was crowing about '1,000,000 paying members' a short while ago, and 'Medium is now profitable'. At that point, earnings were several times higher than now. Where's that money gone? Unless members have plummeted back down, or mid-2024 earnings were coming from bank borrowings, not user revenues, they are either going to writers unknown, or into Medium coffers.
Why did they get their numbers so badly wrong or grossly misleading last year?
Also, if Medium no longer offers the chance of receiving more than one puts in, why use it at all, rather than Substack, which has a far superior algorithm, more extensive functionality (social media via Notes, podcast capability, user retention of subscriber email lists, talk of an integrated ebook publishing platform) and greater potential for gradual organic growth, with zero chance of having to pay anything for the 'right to write'?
Do Medium have any answers to these questions?
