[vajaya]

I think all business has to know what they are selling. Google and Facebook know it very well. They sell ads. All their business endeavours hence are to sell more ads.

On the other hand, newspapers seems to not know that they are selling.

If it's content or information, then they don't create enough unique and valuable content that enough people are willing to pay enough amount.

If it's content distribution or platform for opinions or civil discourses, they are almost anachronistic.

If it's ads, they simply don't have enough eyeballs.

[slang800]

Maybe readers aren't the customers and newspapers are actually selling narrative control.

[macleginn]

That's more or less how Russian printed press worked in the 1990s and early 2000s. All major newspapers and magazines not telling you how to have sex after properly tying your girlfriend to the bed were losing money, and each was owned by a major businessperson who wanted to control the narrative or at least to look like they were able to.