I think Medium blew their cash on high profile editors, branding, contests, too many official publications, too many VIPs, and poor UX. They also spent years paying writers and columnists huge sums of money regardless of how well their stories performed, outside of the partner program. It was largely a top-down model, with a few rare instances when they’d let go of control. Those were always the periods everyone was happiest. I agree they needed to restructure the algorithm to spread the pay around, but this feels like a huge over-correction, and something they could’ve done with a lighter touch much sooner.