As someone who runs 3 newspapers and websites for a living, it is very simple. They shouldn't have ever existed. They survived on major money inflows, fake traffic, and cheap debt.
They completely overtired, had editorial staffs that are 50x the norms, and had no journalistic or unique properties, in general. Chasing the clicks diesnt ever end well.
Advertising supported content on the web was doomed. As the ad dollars grew, they could never outpace the ever increasing inventory created by the explosion of content, so ad prices fell and continue to.
And, like you say, the staff sizes were made for the print era. Unsustainable.
And yes, distribution controlled by third party platforms left only crumbs for the creators.
Could Nostr help? Absolutely, but many journalists still embrace the top down, one to many control that traditional media had and will need a change of mindset.
