The way I have reckoned it is this.... Medium has more than paid back my subscription fees over the last five years - and I believe in the community project and I believe this is an opportunity to decentralise the Medium environment and rebalance the platform away from boosting and publications.
Everyone was new once and, if you leave money aside for a second, it is genuinely a great place to write. I don't read the big names - I read people who I enjoy reading and I keep an eye out for new talent. If my discerning reading skills can be used to keep professional journalists in newspapers where they belong and to allow interpersonal authorship to flourish then $15 a month is a small price to pay for that privilege. Medium is for the indie amateur, like what I am.
And the simple truth is, If you write regularly and engage with others regularly here on the platform then two things happen.... a) you get better at writing and b) you get readers who read your work. I don't have a stratospheric follower count but I make a decent side hustle just from being a half decent wordsmith and an interactive member of the community. I invest in interacting with those people who read me and I'm pleased I can now give back 4 times as much as I take from people who haven't yet built an audience...
In short, Medium is giving those of us who have earned a side hustle here over the years a chance to do socialism properly and spread the wealth through trickle down economics - lefties like me have to prove it works. The big names are flouncing off because they aren't earning mega-bucks at the moment, the newer writers have never had it so good - and the place has never felt so alive with good quality content.
Just my two cents. *points at badge* Sorry, eight cents.
