I've spent so little time reading Medium lately, I hadn't even noticed. Lately, I've tended to just add the occasional story which catches my eye on the main feed to my reading list. But I currently have 21 unread stories in my reading list, so I don't really have a shortage of things to read.

But yes, reading between the lines, it does seem like publications are on their way out. But I don't feel like it's much of a big deal really. Medium would work just fine without them. And just think of all the time saved by editors no longer having to wade through submission queues.

It seems like Medium is becoming more like the text version of YouTube, which functions just fine without anything like publications.