This whole event has an air of bean counter involvement. (Smell the bean counters)

In this ongoing pandemic era it's not only pubs gathered under a big Medium blog tent, its seems now it's millions of online businesses are pushing, desperately for any coin of the realm they can get, podcasts, substacks, subscriptions (repeat that last one a lot), blogs, videos, etc.

[Heck in some localities it's cheaper to pay you taxes in person than online, a lot cheaper. Okay that last example was a non related micro-rant but I find it hard to understand why efficient online systems cost more to users than manual operations, hmm, very strange].

So an online entity like Medium that happens to have the non-ad support biz model online can't be immune to the current financial desperation that most, and apparently all(?) online businesses are showing on their sleeves. (aka reaching for revenue). Medium's choices probably seem like a pub survival lottery to writers where this side hustle can be very important. While this elimination process is ongoing, if that's what is happening, a distraction could even be, hey there, some of you, here's $500, okay, maybe. Anyway, Medium like every other online business, and let's face it's a HUGE number of formerly employed citizens in brick and mortar businesses have moved or had to move online.

I'm sure when PSILY's number came up it had to be a gut punch for their writers and readers.