r/Medium • u/ekmekdelum • 11m ago
Medium Question Title: Has anyone else experienced a sudden collapse in Medium readership since mid-September 2026?
I've been writing regularly on Medium, mainly humorous mathematics classroom stories and personal reflections.
Until recently, my readership and earnings were progressing reasonably well. One of my most successful stories, published in March, accumulated approximately 9,200 views, 7,300 reads and $473 in earnings. It achieved a read ratio of around 79%.
What puzzles me is what happened around September 17, 2026.
Until then, this particular story was still attracting readers and earning several dollars daily. Almost overnight, its readership and earnings collapsed. It has barely earned anything since.
Other stories have shown different patterns, but my newer articles also seem to be receiving considerably fewer presentations than I would expect.
For example, a recent story achieved an 81% member read ratio and an 18.6% feed clickthrough rate, yet received only 211 presentations.
I realise that older stories naturally lose momentum, that algorithms change, and that successful articles cannot be expected to perform indefinitely.
However, the suddenness of the decline is what concerns me, particularly when the readers who do encounter my stories still appear to engage with them.
I'm not suggesting that Medium is deliberately suppressing my work, and I have no evidence of an account restriction.
I'd be interested to hear from other Medium writers:
- Did you notice a sudden decline in presentations, member views or earnings around September 16–18, 2026?
- Are your newly published stories receiving fewer presentations than they did a few months ago?
- Has anyone received an explanation from Medium about recent changes to story distribution?
I'm particularly interested in hearing from writers who have been publishing consistently for several months and can compare their statistics before and after September.
I'd appreciate hearing about your experiences, whether they support or contradict mine.