[dsplittgerber]

Blendle is a solution to a very different problem. Blendle provides unbundling for popular magazines and newspapers, i.e. you can selectively read single articles for < 1€ rather than having to buy a full issue of the paper in question.

It's really well done, but basically does what the iTunes store did for MP3s.

What Medium faces is a rather different beast: Trying to reach the holy grail of finding non-advertising funding for journalism (ideally, without a subscription-based model).

[Baeocystin]

I think Blendle's funding model has potential. Of particular importance is how smooth it is to read, and just as easy to say 'nope, not for this one', or not.

I've read good things on Medium, but if anything Sturgeon's Law is too generous regarding overall quality. Considering the nature of the beast, I'm not even sure it is possible to change the quality ratio without potentially breaking what Medium is.

I'd be happy chipping in sub-dollar amounts here and there for the good stuff, but I am not going to pay a flat fee for access to what amounts to a whole lot of tripe and just a few meatballs.

[mercer]

That's what I like about Blendle's model. I'm an infrequent user (< 1 article a month) but I probably spent more on Blendle than the cost of a subscription to any one of Blendle's sources.

Out of all the articles I read, I think I clicked the refund button maybe twice, and that was only because the article was truly terrible.

I can say with certainty that I wouldn't have bothered reading any of these paywalled articles if Blendle didn't exist.