EvWilliams wanted to break away from the model where advertising pays for writing. So he set up Medium - a place for readers, and he had all the major newspapers and magazines post on here. Famous writers and famous politiicians were paid big bucks to write here. it had a lot of readers.

Then, over the years, the model changed, and as more writers came on, it was difficult to find the good stuff, essentially because it got taken over by marketers. They also gamed the system through clapping. People clapped, got paid, but their stuff wasn't read.

All of this cost Medium a lot of readers. It has now switched markets, and instead of catering to readers, it is catering to wannabe writers.