Said another way, the primary competitors to newspapers are garbage content that is already free that is provocative that can drive advertising dollars and that consumes attention. The only difference with the internet is that there’s more content that eats up time, some of which can actually be as good as the content the newspapers provide or better because expertise niches can form that is either volunteer run or can charge money for the content.
The first century worth of newspapers were ridiculously biased rags. They existed as political, social, and commercial propaganda for whomever funded them, and they were bought by people who liked that kind of thing.
I think modern professional journalism was a fluke of history. Without independent funding it's going right back to its original state. And the only way that independent funding will happen is with a highly educated and involved citizenry, which scares the living crap out of the powerful.
