I think they got their sums completely wrong in August, and/or stupidly thought they could get people on board with the changes by frontloading some cash, then taking it all away again, like that was ever going to be a good communciation strategy.

The volume of stories published can't have gone up that much - they've just had to shrink the pot because it was taking too much from their profits.

Might they not have just run some simulations beforehand? FFS.

So if they don't want to give out more money, but the writers want/need more, ad revenue might be the solution, as Netflix have found.