The big change is that news in general has been 'unbundled', since everything you could possibly get from a newspaper or magazine in the olden days can now be gotten on its own via the internet (usually for free). The hard hitting journalism aspect was basically subsidised by all the other stuff there, like sports and entertainment news, classified ads, property listings, comics, etc.
Now all of those things have free competitors that usually offer a better product, so we're left with the issue of "how do we fund the journalism that matters, if most people don't want to pay for it on its own?"
The other issue is that because the internet has lowered the barrier to entry for writing and news reporting so much, people have no real incentive to pay for anything. This has also hit many of the things unbundled from the newspaper above, since so many people want to write about tech/celebrity/entertainment/sports news that there's no reason to pay for it; there'll be an alternative that's just as good for free elsewhere.
Also probably doesn't help there that in quite a few fields, companies and organisations are just skipping the middleman altogether, and offering their updates straight to the consumer. See stuff like Nintendo Directs and State of Plays in gaming, or Apple Keynotes and stuff in general tech. When most outlets are just listing things announced in said presentations with the minimal amount of analysis, there's not much reason to get the information from them anymore.
Not sure what the solution is sadly. The problem is that there's certain types of reporting that only work with enough funding/corporate backing to make it viable, but most people don't care enough about it to pay, since that's a tiny minority of the stories in most newspapers and magazines. And with so many competitors, it's hard to justify charging for anything when so many others are just offering it for free.
Indipendent journalists, micro teams publications (<10 people) of hard hitting investigative journalism on topics that go viral on social media to reach millions of potential customers
Now all of those things have free competitors that usually offer a better product, so we're left with the issue of "how do we fund the journalism that matters, if most people don't want to pay for it on its own?"
The other issue is that because the internet has lowered the barrier to entry for writing and news reporting so much, people have no real incentive to pay for anything. This has also hit many of the things unbundled from the newspaper above, since so many people want to write about tech/celebrity/entertainment/sports news that there's no reason to pay for it; there'll be an alternative that's just as good for free elsewhere.
Also probably doesn't help there that in quite a few fields, companies and organisations are just skipping the middleman altogether, and offering their updates straight to the consumer. See stuff like Nintendo Directs and State of Plays in gaming, or Apple Keynotes and stuff in general tech. When most outlets are just listing things announced in said presentations with the minimal amount of analysis, there's not much reason to get the information from them anymore.
Not sure what the solution is sadly. The problem is that there's certain types of reporting that only work with enough funding/corporate backing to make it viable, but most people don't care enough about it to pay, since that's a tiny minority of the stories in most newspapers and magazines. And with so many competitors, it's hard to justify charging for anything when so many others are just offering it for free.