Oh, I like the first change that includes the pub in the About section. I'd have the writer first, pub second. It would make the writer a little more front and centre.

Both of these changes seem minor, but there's a bit of marketing psychology going on which may change how people interact with Medium. It does a couple things.

1) It aligns with other media companies. ie. You go to CNN or BBC and not to specific journalists to read news/stories.

2) It makes the pubs first to be viewed by a reader. It may seem unimportant but this can incentive readers to follow publications more so than writers. It's a byproduct of how we read from top to bottom/left to right. I'd love to see a eye tracking test result of how people view the main page of Medium. I'd almost guarantee that most people don't read "In Publication by Author" completely and mostly look at the first item only, if at all, from what I know of other eye tracking tests.