But I suspect there is so little money in local news now (partly because of the internet and partly because of the collapse of newspaper-driven local commerce, small ads, all that), that they do not care; they are in a toxic relationship with the only advertising that pays, and to step outside that and construct a local news model that would be sustainable and not abusive to its readers is the stuff of romance novels and Hallmark movies.
With the Reach sites I am surprised by some of the design elements that could be improved even without touching the aggressively bad advertising design, though. The typical "where I live" selector could be so much better.
I have no idea of the thinking behind it but I hope the devs, testers and designers behind it hide that part of their experience on their CVs.
I mean, the shame they must feel.