Any newspaper available in my city are reliant upon advertising.
Let's not forget I pay for the newspaper subscription too, it's not free to sign up.
Unfortunately some newspapers also are heavily biased in favor of those who pay their bills. See The Washington Post on any Amazon/Bezos related news after he became the owner of Democracy's death in Darkness.
True but newspaper advertising has always been untracked for obvious reasons. At most it was adjusted to the target audience of a particular paper and perhaps the type of content in the section.
It's only when the internet came along that advertisers started considering non-targeted advertising as unviable.