To me, the function of the pubs is to bring readers and writers together, just like the publishing houses used to do--and are probably still doing. Publishing houses need to find written works that will sell.

Readers will go to the Medium pubs where they know they can get the quality reads they are looking for. In essence, the pubs become a filter---a much better filter than the Medium feed.

I'm not sure this is happening. I am not seeing Medium having subcribers who are mostly readers. Nearly all of us have an ulterior motive of wanting to get our own work read.

I would be a good example of why writers having their own pub really could not game the system. My pub has not attracted many readers because my main topic is not popular with Medium political writers/readers. I have been trying to build my following outside that pub, but again the topic is not conducive to a big following. We could argue that the system is working well because it has rightfully relegated my work to the bins of unpopularity.

And yet I still get to publish my work and get a few eyes looking at it. This is something that probably would not happen with the traditional writer/publisher model. In this sense, Medium has served me well.

Medium needs to attract "mostly readers". The pubs can be the filter for those readers. Having a little financial incentive will create more pubs with a reader focus. Anyways, that is how I am seeing things.