Medium is nicely done software, not without limits, but it isn't what news needs, which is why imho they are having trouble finding a business model that works. 

News needs a common platform that integrates all the news sources that show up on Facebook, but not run for the benefit of Facebook's founders, rather run for the benefit of people with ideas that are newsworthy and people who want to read them. 

I'm not saying Medium can or should pivot to do this, but don't assume that because Medium is struggling to find a model that works that there is no future model for news. 

There are at least three publications I should probably have a subscription to, but I only pay one. There are another twenty whose paywalls I hit regularly. If I paid for all the subscriptions whose paywalls I hit, I would be spending a lot more for news than I do for the Internet connection that gets me to the news, in addition to most of what I read which is not-for-pay. That doesn't seem right to me, and it isn't containable. There will always be another source I would like to read but can't because of this unworkable economic system. 

Instead I want what I get from Facebook without the algorithm. All the news sources appearing in a reverse-chronologic river, with the possibility of having a mailbox-style reader (as I have for Twitter with Happy Friends) and I pay a flat fee per month which is then allocated to the pubs based on how much I read their work. 

I know it's not perfect, it rewards linkbait, but I also get to choose which pubs show up in my river, using a checkbox-news style interface. So new ones show up, but they can easily be banished if they turn out to be spammy. And my friendships should also cause new pubs to be suggested.

The best part of it is this -- level playing field. No more gatekeeping by the big news orgs. The gatekeepers don't even serve them anymore. We get the same voices saying the same things, as the world changes, they're following a river that has gone dry, meanwhile the actual news has charted a different course. 

We need a union of news orgs, implemented as a web site, with a business model that merges all the different for-pay methods. It should be easy to use like Facebook, but without the conflicts of Facebook and open to bloggers and new voices who aren't controlled by corporate media.

PS: It seems to me that Twitter could serve this need, quite nicely, btw.