An afterthought: there are platforms with “bunch of bloggers” that we can pay money to, and they are called old school newspapers. But the implication remains: with the newspaper, you know what they do and what you pay money for. What does Medium want to get paid for without being a traditional newspaper, with all the things like editorial policy, journalistic standards (whatever they might be) and so on? To me it’s unclear.
Based on what the CEO said, it sounds like they want to get paid for a recommendation engine that surfaces quality, substantial content. Upping the signal-to-noise ratio. Where traditional newspapers have editorial policy and journalistic standards, you could see that as an authoritative "these are the rules and follow them". I could see medium attempting a more 'free market system' where writers are incentivized to write quality content by getting views and money and the snuff sinks to the bottom. Essentially taking a more 'automated system of incentives' approach to try and fill that newspapery niche.
Especially with the consideration that traditional newspapers typically don't have niche content like programming articles.
