When it's a Tuesday...

Neal's Newsletter: When It's a Tuesday...

This week's newsletter is short and sweet. My city of Los Angeles is in the middle of a soul-crushing heatwave, Texas is still flooded, and everyone's waiting for the Labor Day holiday.

If you have a few dollars to spare--or more than a few--help out with Harvey recovery.

Now back to the usual programming...

I'm fascinated by Medium, the online publishing platform, and what's happening on the how-does-Medium-make-money front lately.

Last week, Medium announced a micropayment system for writers based around "Claps."

Basically, authors have the choice of making their articles available online for free or putting them behind a partial paywall. If behind a partial paywall, Medium compensates writers based on how many "Claps" they get. The paywall costs $5 a month, and offers a lot for the money.

This ties into a huge problem Medium's been dealing with: A huge readership, and an utter inability to make money from their platform.

I work with M…