Editors, find your best submissions faster with the new off-topic badge

Plus: How we’re investing in our publication ecosystem

Publication editors, you will now be able to see, at a glance, which story submissions in your inbox are off-topic. If a writer submits a story with topics that don’t match one of the five topics you set in your settings, or with no topics at all, those stories will have a small badge next to them in your inbox so you can quickly discern which stories could be a good fit — and which ones you can discard.

Image Credit: Jason Combs / the Medium Brand team

We’ve heard from editors that they want better tools to understand the relevance and fit of the stories writers submit to their publications. This improvement makes it simple to scan your inbox for the best stories to spend your time working on.

This update doesn’t take any action on your behalf — it’s just a faster way for you to triage the stories in your inbox.

Why we’re continuing to invest in our publication ecosystem

Publications are one of Medium’s most valuable assets — to writers, readers, and editors, and hence, to Medium.

As an editor, where else can you easily spin up a themed magazine, find willing writers, and run it to your heart’s content? You only need to be a Medium member to create a publication.

As a writer, where else can you find a wealth of niche publications to provide a home for your story, benefit from editors who work on your story, and present your story to readers who have never heard of you before? (Our data shows the very best thing a new writer to Medium can do to gain an audience is submit it to a good-fit publication.) And the turnaround time is quick compared to industry standards — we found Medium editors typically get back to writers within a day on average. In the wider literary world, around two-thirds of magazine editors take longer than a month to get back to writers.

And as a reader, where else can you find valuable stories, vetted by a real editor who’s filtering out the spam and low-effort crud, on almost any topic imaginable, all in one place?

In short: Publications matter to Medium, because they give something unique to all our users. That’s why we’re investing in our new Editor Partner Program for qualifying publications (more to come on this shortly!) and making it easier to manage your submissions inbox through tools like the bulk block, bulk decline, and off-topic badges.

What should editors and writers do?

If you’re a publication editor, you can go to your publication settings page to update or set the topics you want to use to filter submissions. It’s also a good practice to add these to your submission guidelines to ensure writers know which topics you focus on.

The url is https://medium.com/[YOUR-PUBLICATION]/settings. For example, https://medium.com/birds-birds-birds/settings.

Image Credit: Jason Combs / the Medium Brand team

If you’re a writer, you’ll be able to find these topics on a publication’s About page. Just click on the About tab on any publication and scroll down below the writers to find the topics list.

What’s next

We’re working to make submissions better for editors, writers, and readers alike. When editors can quickly and efficiently manage their inboxes, it means that writers have shorter wait times and easier access to publications, editors have more time to spend on the actual editing of pieces, and ultimately, readers get more stories they love.

We’re working on even more improvements to the submission experience for writers and editors, and we’re open to your suggestions, especially from editors. Please feel free to leave a response to let us know what would make the submission process better for you.

FAQ

What is the off-topic badge?

This is a small badge that appears next to story submissions in your publication inbox when a writer’s submitted topics don’t match any of your publication’s five set topics.

How do I set my publication’s topics?

Go to your publication settings at https://medium.com/[YOUR-PUBLICATION]/settings. You can set up to five topics that define what topics you’re looking for in submissions.

Where can writers find a publication’s topics before submitting?

On the publication’s About page. Click the About tab and scroll below the writers list.

Does an off-topic or no-topic badge mean the story is automatically rejected?

No. The badge is a visual signal to help you triage your inbox faster. It doesn’t take any action on your behalf. You still decide which stories to accept or decline.

What if a submission has no topics at all?

It will get a no-topic badge, since there’s no way to match it against your publication’s focus areas. You may want to add a note in your submission guidelines asking writers to add topics to their stories before submitting.

What if my publication has no topics set?

No stories will get badges.

Should I update my submission guidelines to reflect my topics?

Yes, it’s good practice to list your topics in your guidelines so writers can make sure they’re streamlining the submission process before even submitting.

Is this part of a larger set of changes to the submission experience?

Yes. The off-topic badge joins “bulk block” and “bulk decline” as tools to help editors manage their inboxes more efficiently. More improvements are on the way.