First things first - thank you for yet another informative post peppered with humour -:)!

I agree with you in all but one aspect - creating Medium Substack. Not only because replicas rarely work, but also because I have tried Substack (after being told many times that 'everyone is writing on Substack') and found the platform and the business model behind it less than desirable. It might be just me, but I find guilt-tripping (…you are reading this newsletter for free… consider subscribing, etc.) repulsive especially since it keeps on popping-up around every corner. Needless to say – I left.

That said, there are some aspects Medium would do well to foster, starting with the most obvious one - podcast function. In addition, something like Substack’s newest additions (‘Chats’ and ‘Notes’) might also contribute to engagement and therefore traffic. Also, regular (monthly or quarterly) competitions for (for example) ‘best poem,’ ‘short story,’ ‘opinion piece,’ ‘investigative piece,’ etc. would, I think, add lots of value. Lastly, and I have flagged that to Tony before – proliferation of seemingly endless and often repetitive ‘tags’ or ‘topics’ that gave impression of clutter and disorganisation. The same goes for inactive or barely active pubs, clearly fake/multiple profiles and similar.

I know that might seem like a lot, but if Medium is going to stay afloat in the cut-throat, over-populated space of internet writing, I dare say, some hard work and smart innovation are necessary. The idea, in my view, is not to copy what is already there, but to make Medium own, unique version of it that will be point of difference.

I don’t have anything per se against Substack, but it seems obvious that (in its current business model) it is not sustainable. That said, its initial success that is still attractive to many, was exactly that – innovation. A new kid on the block. Medium can do better if prepared to take some risks by investing in innovation that would be attractive to quality writers that cannot be easily or at all replaced by AI. That, in my view, is what would return Medium to its ‘golden days,’ or at least a version of it. More of the same won’t. My two cents worth -😊!