Medium failed because "words on the internet" isn't a business model. People are writing to be seen, not to advertise for Medium.com. Over time, that means Medium becomes a halfway house for the "published on Inc.com / Entrepreneur.com" army of freelance content writers in between jobs.
For Medium to make money, it will always come down to pumping "user growth" and advertising to help the site owners sell it off to some bloated media conglomerate like Conde Nast.
BTW, all the issues with Medium.com that you've described are things I am already seeing on Substack.
- Lots of interesting writers gathering at the latest "for writers" venue
- Everybody remarking how different the clean interface is compared to the ugly popup-bar filled mess that they came from
- Some achieve overnight success, pulling other writers into the platform
- Platform starts running out of VC funding runway and starts tweaking the site to deliver more 'conversions'. Instead of a clean design, you'll now see a "sign up" popup that has to be dismissed. Writers are also encouraged to paywall early, so that great article link that you sent to your friend is no longer accessible because it's for paid subscribers only.
For Medium to make money, it will always come down to pumping "user growth" and advertising to help the site owners sell it off to some bloated media conglomerate like Conde Nast.
BTW, all the issues with Medium.com that you've described are things I am already seeing on Substack.
- Lots of interesting writers gathering at the latest "for writers" venue
- Everybody remarking how different the clean interface is compared to the ugly popup-bar filled mess that they came from
- Some achieve overnight success, pulling other writers into the platform
- Platform starts running out of VC funding runway and starts tweaking the site to deliver more 'conversions'. Instead of a clean design, you'll now see a "sign up" popup that has to be dismissed. Writers are also encouraged to paywall early, so that great article link that you sent to your friend is no longer accessible because it's for paid subscribers only.