Very thought provoking article, Dew. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm going to use an old saying or gripe - depending on your perspective, to describe my feelings about Medium and the way it operates.

We can send a man to the moon; we can build an Internet. We can create Google and Apple and God help us - Facebook - but Ev Williams and the collective brain trust at Medium can't figure out how to make the platform work profitably.

I just don't buy it. No advertising is a laudable but selfish goal when a suitable replacement theory is not right there in front of you begging to be used. They are not cutting funding to Pubs because profits from subscriptions are really high right now.

Use Ads and then transition. There are tens of millions of readers - do a survey of say 100,000 of them and find out what model they are willing to follow.

If you asked TV viewers in 1948 if they would pay $25 per year to watch shows they would probably have said no - nothing to compare the experience to - is it even worth that? So sponsors were asked to pay and the Colgate and the Johnson & Johnson Hours were born.

But look at today and 1,000 different streaming platforms all charging their own fee and guess how many people are paying? Give viewers the chance to decide.

Medium, gives us the impression that they are actively trying to solve the riddle by asking THEMSELVES what do our readers want. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they have a 100 A & B tests going on various ideas. But when they keep creating self-inflicted wounds or cause writers to lose 50% of their views or shelve complaints by readers that - I can't find my favorite writers - then it would seem that they are still searching for the right solution.

And I sincerely hope they find it. I like Medium and I want it to flourish. But it needs to innovate. Paying Pubs 1% or 5% is doable. Introducing ads and then weening subscribers off a monthly fee as a result may also be possible. Or maybe making it $2.50 a month and add advertising selectively. Or ask Companies to sponsor the Pubs, like they do football stadiums and we would have, General Motors, The Start Up publication. It's possible.

People would be offended for 10 minutes until their monthly checks go up 200%, then they'll rethink the whole idea and give it a thumbs up.

Just ask us what we would be willing to do to keep Medium going strong and living long. They might be surprised.