Medium Boost is dead, Medium isn't. But what works there has changed pretty dramatically
If you write on Medium, let's talk about what's working there now
Y’all, fair warning that I’m aiming for blunt with this piece. Because there are people I’ve come to know and care about who are struggling on Medium so I’m not going to mince words. I’m going to talk as bluntly as I would if you were at my kitchen table.
But first?
I want to tell you why I used the photo I did because I chose it with intent.
In 1872, Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin painted a self portrait with death looming, playing the fiddle, grinning. When I went looking to find the image, I found some art historian who said Böcklin was obsessed with death because he painted it nine times.
I kind of shook my head, you know? Because Böcklin buried eight children. Five in childhood, and three more as adults. And I thought, just dig a little. You know? Just dig a little. I don’t think he was obsessed with death. I think he knew life is fleeting.
What struck me, though, is how much people love shrieking that something is dying.
You don’t have to be on the internet very long to realize everything is dying or should die according to someone. SEO is dying! Websites are dying! Social media is dying! Medium is dying! AI is dying! Death to the patriarchy! You know?
Nothing is dying on the internet until it’s dead.
Almost every time someone says something is dying, it’s usually clickbait in the most literal way. And what’s worse is we fall for it. It’s like we can’t help ourselves. Curiosity gets us so we click “just to see” and teach the algorithm to show us more.
But the more insidious part is that sweeping statements like that become justifying.
I’ve been hearing people saying Medium is dying or dead since January 2025 when a lot of writers took a giant whack in pay. And when you hear enough people saying the same thing, it becomes explanatory. We can feel like oh, that explains our experience and once we have an explanation, we don’t need to dig in a little deeper.
Medium’s Boost program is dead.
Medium, however, is not.
Yesterday I got an email from the CEO of Medium saying they are shutting down the Boost Nomination program. If you don’t know what that is, it was a program Medium launched two years ago to give more exposure to strong writing.
It was an attempt at human curation.
Humans picking what to surface, not algorithms.
I’m sad to see it go. I was one of the first round of editors invited when the program launched in March 2023. But also, I think the death of human curation was inevitable, and I think writers need to understand why because it helps explain what changed at Medium. And what works there today.
Because what works there today isn’t what used to work there in the past.
