The decline of newspapers, and journalism in general, is 100% due to the now common practice of writing a story that says "<another outlet> reported ...". Why

The decline of newspapers, and journalism in general, is 100% due to the now common practice of writing a story that says "<another outlet> reported ...". Why would anyone spend the time money to do actual journalistic research when it's so much cheaper to steal someone else's work. When stories became a commodity, it became a race to the bottom.