Quality content takes time and effort to produce, so it's very expensive. A serious long-form investigative piece could take several man-months, whereas a click

Quality content takes time and effort to produce, so it's very expensive. A serious long-form investigative piece could take several man-months, whereas a clickbaity opinion piece can be knocked out by an intern in a couple of hours. It's a chicken-and-egg problem. If you don't pay, they can't afford to produce quality journalism. If they don't produce quality journalism, you won't pay.