The Sound of the Fury

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

When Medium decided to stop funding many of the publications on their platform, most editors of those publications wrote nice notes thanking Medium for their patronage. A few detailed new plans for publishing their content elsewhere. Sarah Cords, from P.S. I Love You, however, would not go gently into that good night. She is angry about the defunding of the publication she had put her heart into, and wants others to know it.

Cords is tired of the churn in journalism and the constant desire of technology companies to be "disruptive."

But you know what? I’m a member of Gen X and I’m tired. I’m deeply tired. I’m fighting to stay employed so we can keep our health insurance, and I’m trying to look after my elderly mother, and I’m trying to take care of my husband who has health problems, and I’m trying to keep up with my kids who need a lot of help and reassurance after a year of pandemic.

P.S. I Love You, which was a publication about relationships, had almost 300K subscribers and I was one of those. I didn't read every article they published, but found a lot of the work there to be compelling.

I don't want to ascribe callousness to a guy I don't even know, but I wonder how much Ev Williams thinks about the people that get tossed aside every time he has a whim to change the business model.