I continued to think about "what do readers get out of Medium," after I wrote the comment. Readers want good content. The algorithm tends to feed you more of what you select and read. I used to read more tech articles as I was an avid Python coder. As I click on fewer tech articles I see fewer tech articles in my feed.

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I wrote an article a while back right after Medium tweaked the format a bit. I wanted better control over my feed, many readers felt the same. Medium promotes far too many “How to write to make money articles” Those should be lumped under one topic and only accessed if selected. Those pollute my feed more than any other type of article.

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Reader discover Medium and stay for the content. If the content is shit why would anyone pay $50 a year. To me it’s the best $50 I spend.

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Perhaps I misunderstood, but it seemed the original article was implying that readers needed some form of reward to stay on the platform. Why does anyone subscribe to the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the local newspaper, Netflix, Amazon, Showtime? For the content. The reward is the content, nothing more, nothing less. When the content sucks, I go elsewhere.

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If Medium wants to hold and attract new readers it’s all in the articles they promote.