I'm curious why writers don't approach this like app developers burning the midnight oil pushing their own content for micro payments until they have enough sub

I'm curious why writers don't approach this like app developers burning the midnight oil pushing their own content for micro payments until they have enough subscribers to go it alone. It seems like a similar dynamic. Maybe I'm way off here but I trust individual journalists much more than individual journalists under a corporate master. For example, I'd gladly pay Glen Greenwald 49 cents/mo or 5 dollars/yr whatever for exclusive (not edited by corporate masters) content from him. I know things like news letters exist but the only ones I've ever seen are talking about aliens or stock picks.