*Cracks knuckles* Excellent, time for me to come out of retirement. I had zero interest in writing for Medium publications for much the same reason I have zero interest in writing for left-wing newspapers. The more you centralise the creativity, the more you play into the existing bias and group think. That's not what I came to Medium for and not what I choose to read or write.

This is a welcome move and I think you will win back many of the amateur and interesting voices that have taken a backseat during the Medium Publication and professional journalism era. Your transparency does you credit :o)

EDIT: I have now pre-emptively taken full credit for this Medium pivot. https://medium.com/lucid-nightmare/did-i-single-handedly-bring-down-all-the-medium-publications-288375477845