Tony is clearly a great CEO, and it's rare that one would engage so regularly with his audience. However, I can't help but feel that the undeniably praise-worthy decision to "value quality writing over clickbait" veils the simple fact that Medium wasn't making enough money.

Therefore, to keep shareholders happy, they had to figure out a smart way to pay us less while generating more paying members. The result is the new opaque remuneration formula, and the fact many creators on this platform have experienced a huge drop in pay.

This is the elephant in the room. Not Tony's fault, of course. He's in a difficult position.