One of the most important assets an author can build is an email list. Unlike social media followers, your email subscribers belong to you — or at least they should. That’s why it’s worth taking a hard look at how different platforms handle subscriber data, especially now that Medium has shifted its policies.
Substack: List Ownership from Day One
- Launch year: 2017
- Policy: Writers have always owned their email lists. Substack makes it easy to export subscriber emails at any time.
- Why it matters: If you decide to leave Substack, you can take every reader with you — no hostage situation. This is core to their business model and hasn’t changed.
Medium: From Sharing to Withholding
- Early years: Medium was a reading platform first, not a newsletter service. When it added newsletters and email subscriptions (around 2020), writers could collect subscriber addresses and even export them.
- The shift: In May 2025, Medium quietly changed the rules. Writers can no longer see or export new subscriber emails collected through the in-app “notify me by email” flow. You can still export older, “legacy” subscriber lists you built before the change — but anyone who subscribes after May 2025 is hidden behind Medium’s wall.
- Why it matters: That means you don’t truly own your list anymore. Medium controls access, and your ability to connect directly with readers is limited to their system.
Why This Change Matters for Authors
If you’re building a writing career, email is your lifeline. It’s the one channel you control, immune to shifting algorithms and platform shutdowns. Giving that away means your future is at the mercy of a platform’s business decisions.
Medium’s decision is a clear signal: their priority is keeping readers inside their ecosystem, not giving authors long-term independence. Substack, on the other hand, still treats email list ownership as non-negotiable.
The Bottom Line
For authors serious about reaching readers directly: build your list on a platform that lets you export and control it. That’s your insurance policy in a changing publishing landscape.
Here's a quick look at the features of both platforms.
| Feature | Substack | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Launch year | 2017 | 2012 (newsletters added ~2020) |
| Email list ownership | Yes. Writers own their lists. | Partial. Writers used to get subscriber emails but as of May 2025, new email subscribers are hidden. |
| Export capability | Always exportable, anytime. | Export legacy lists only (pre–May 2025). New subscriber emails cannot be exported. |
| Subscriber visibility | Full: name + email address. | Limited: pre-2025 subscribers visible; post-change only visible in Medium’s system, not as raw email addresses. |
| Platform priority | Newsletter-first, with publishing as distribution. | Reader-first, platform-centered experience; discourages list portability. |
| Revenue model | Paid subscriptions (90/10 split after Stripe fees). | Partner Program pays based on reading time, engagement, and follower/subscriber counts. |
| Migration risk | Low — you can take your audience anywhere. | High — new subscribers can’t follow you off-platform. |
| Best use case | Building and owning a portable audience. | Visibility and reach inside Medium’s ecosystem. |
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