It would seem that dropping the paywall for anyone would hurt Medium's odds of turning visitors into subscribers, but the company seems to believe giving Twitter users free access will only help. Williams said Twitter makes up a "relatively small (but important)" part of Medium's traffic and believes the change will "have a positive impact." The CEO also said the change is unlikely have any affect on compensation for authors who publish their work on the platform, as that is based on readership from paying members. As long as a member is logged in when they click the link, the author should get paid.

While the paywall may no longer be in effect for Twitter visitors, Medium will still maintain its $5 per month and and $50 per year subscription models. Medium has given its authors the ability to publish behind a paywall and has worked to land more publications on its platform in order to entice more people to subscribe.