I had to go check - $40/mo for a digital newspaper?! Surely this is aimed at a different demographic than mine, because I can’t imagine anyone I know paying that for news.
I know many Finance/Wall St and (Financial/Management) academic types who pay for FT.
It's high quality, financial news with a European perspective (vs the WSJ which is very US-centric). I assume they keep the prices high enough to support their operations without having to dilute their coverage for the mass market who will want their celebrity news, daily outrage fodder, censorship etc.
They've had a noticeable increase in almost-clickbait titles in the last few years. So it's not like they've remained unaffected by the decline in news media.
Maybe they've always been there, but it just took you a few years to notice them. By how often you hear this sentiment (X newspaper used to be better, more thoughtful and analytical), you'd expect news articles written a few decades ago to read like dissertations. Except they all read about the same, newsy and for a general audience. My theory is it takes a few years to notice the crap, but the crap was there all the time.