All I can say is, finally.

Back in the mid 20-teens, I told friends that Medium was Twitter for blog posts. That gradually became inaccurate: it's now more like Netflix for writing—not only because it charges for access, but also because it favors its own content with distribution love.

The whole magic of Medium at the beginning was that it did away with editors—at least from where I stood. I had been a professional writer for a long time, and loved pitching editors. I was good at it, too (and eventually became one). Yet I loved that Medium made them irrelevant. A story lived or died on whether it found an audience, and my own stories found an audience on Medium better than anywhere else.

More and more, though, Medium pushed its own content. That always seemed like a doomed vanity project to me. Great video content of the variety that Netflix airs necessarily requires serious resources and professional talent; I'm not sure the same is true for writing.

Anyway, I stopped writing on Medium several years ago. I don't write to make money (at least directly). I write to connect with an audience. Competition with Medium's own content—along with Medium's stated policy of no distribution love for non-paywall posts—made it harder and harder for me to do that.

I can hear what you're thinking: (a) this guy uses a lot of em dashes; and (b) we can't make money on him. He doesn't care about the few bucks he might get in royalties from our paywall. He's not our target.

But back when I did write on Medium, I would have paid a lot for intelligence about how to connect better with my audience. I don't know if that's a scalable revenue model — or scalable anymore for Medium — but I wonder about it.

Anyway, like I said, good move. I'm rooting for you, and hoping it wasn't too late.