Day One of Medium’s New Payment Plan and I’m Unimpressed

Looks like my fears are coming true.

Photo by Nitin Garg on Unsplash

Recently I read about the new and improved payment plan Medium was rolling out. Of course, being old, and having had life kick me in the groin numerous times, I was skeptical. So, I was interested in how the new algorithms were going to impact my pay. Let me put it this way, I’m doubled over and may have a double hernia. Thank you life, via Medium.

How bad is it?

Well, generally speaking, previously the minimum I made on stories was 2–3 cents per minute read. I checked this morning, and I was getting less than one cent per minute read on some stories. Sometimes substantially less than one cent.

But whose fault is it?

Mine. Why? Because it’s always the writer's fault. I’m not writing stuff that is engaging an adding value to the readers life.

I admittedly am not trying to change my readers’ lives. I hope to give a little bit of information and hopefully get a laugh or two along the way.

This is why I talk about my earnings

When it comes to money, heaven knows Medium is going to keep you in the dark about how you’re getting paid. Unless we communicate with other writers, how do we know what’s going on at ground zero?

Am I leaving Medium?

Not at this point. But if I did, I don’t see the point in slamming the door on the way out. Medium will go on without me. I think. I do think changing algorithms and pay structure at a fairly rapid pace isn’t a sign of platform strength. But my leaving wouldn’t be the straw that broke the camel's back.

In addition, a comment I came across on News Break made sense me. It said something like, “you’re not an airport, there’s no need to announce your departure.”

One day is not a huge baseline to base a decision on. Maybe I will see something in subsequent days that makes me reevaluate my opinion about the new Medium pay scale.

I will say that almost every account I’ve ever written for generally continued to deteriorate once it started going downhill.

But maybe Medium will be the exception. And maybe that soured milk in my refrigerator got better overnight.

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