Honestly, I think the paid membership of Medium is declining, and that is where the revenue comes from. I've always felt that there were way more contributor/author paid members than readers/audiences here. We have been essentially writing to ourselves.

Ultimately it comes down to access. In this day and age people don't want to pay to consume content. So the readers that have the potential to drive our revenue aren't here anymore. 3 free articles a month just isn't enough to keep them around. And we don't earn money on "friend" links.

I think Medium needs to face the ugly truth and swallow the bitter pill...it's time for ads. This is why media outlets sell ad space. It ungates content and opens access, paying for itself through clicks.

And we as authors should get a piece of the ad revenue from those ads served on our stories. Until this happens paid readers will continue to decline. Eventually the articles we will see are those targeting other Medium authors...like this one.