I was lost until I got half way through this and realized that you meant publishers, not editors.

I don't know why they do that. I inquired to one once and they said they'd add me and never did. My guess is they were just being a smart@$$.

It does no one any good to leave dead pubs just sitting. If they aren't going to keep them active and aren't going to turn the reigns over then they should just shut them down. Everything posted there will show up on the writers' profiles.

I hope when Medium starts shutting down pubs they shut down the dead ones too. If writers have to post 2x a year (which I think is ridiculously low) then publishers should be required to publish every month.