[voyou]

There's one pretty clear difference: the bubblegum seller isn't offering the bubblegum at no cost, so they're saying "I made something, I think you're willing to pay for it, so I deserve to get paid." The publisher of ad-supported content is saying "I made something, I don't think you're willing to pay for it, but I deserve to get paid anyway." So it's the publisher who thinks that "something that many people choose to read has no value"; they just haven't yet realised the logical consequence of this evaluation of their product is that they won't get paid for it, either.